Abstract
A NEW treatment of leprosy reported from Madagascar (Brit. Med. J., 338, March 10, 1945; and Lancet, 357, March 17, 1945) suggests that it is, in some respects, a considerable advance in the fight against this ancient and terrible scourge of mankind. Drs. Boiteau and Grimes extracted, so long ago as 1937, a new glucoside from the umbelliferous plant Hydrocotyle asiatica, which gave encouraging results when it was tried for the treatment of leprosy; but it was too toxic. In 1938 Bontemps, working at Antananavivo, isolated another new glucoside which he called 'asiaticoside', and this was not only active against leprosy but was also much less toxic. It was insoluble in water, slightly soluble in alcohol and very soluble in pyridine. Later Boiteau obtained a solution of it suitable for injection, and Devanne and Razafimahery have studied its chemical constitution. Boiteau and Grimes think that it acts by dissolving the waxy covering of B. leprœ, so that the bacillus then becomes very fragile and may easily be destroyed by the tissues or by some other drug. The results of injections of the solution prepared by Boiteau are reported as being remarkable. Leprosy nodules are broken down, diffuse infiltrations disappear, perforating ulcers and lesions on the fingers heal and, most remarkable of all, eye lesions are rapidly cured if treatment is given before the posterior chamber of the eye is involved. If fuller reports of trials on a larger number of patients substantiate these claims, and if asiaticoside can be prepared in sufficient quantity, mankind will owe a great debt of gratitude to the discoverers of this remedy. If the view that it acts by dissolving the waxy coating of the bacillus is correct, it is not inconceivable that it may show the way towards the control of infections with other bacilli which have a waxy envelope, such as the bacillus of tuberculosis.
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Treatment of Leprosy. Nature 155, 601 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155601c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155601c0
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