HEALTH-CUBA: Tasty Mango Also Fights Diseases

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Jul 30 2000 (IPS) - A Cuban pharmaceutical laboratory hopes a medication made from mango peel will be a success on the international market as the product has proven effective against oxidant stress and is recommended for everyone, healthy or sick, who wants to improve the quality of his or her life.

The product, Vimang, also serves as an anti-oxidant, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic and immune system regulator, and is available as a cream, in tablets or flavoured powder, maintaining its healing properties in all forms.

Vimang is manufactured using the extract of certain mango varieties based on a formula discovered by Eleuterio Páez, a former major in Cuba’s Revolutionary War Navy who is famed for curing cancer and other diseases with his mango concoctions.

“Mass production will begin as soon as we resolve the small detail of financing,” said Alberto Núñez, director of the Chemical Pharmaceutical Centre (CQF), which has already registered Vimang for future marketing in several Latin American and European countries.

“One of the duties of our centre is to investigate any healer who is thought to have found something new. Some practice mysticism, others offer very good treatments for certain illnesses, but only on the local level,” he explained.

Páez turned out to be different. Núñez said the former major had spent two decades working with mango peel extract and had treated thousands of people with his product, which many of his patients called “miraculous.” Then CQF staff heard about him.

The CQG and other Cuban scientific organisations conducted rigorous analyses of Páez’s formulas, research that lasted six years and included 300 of his patients, producing “amazing” results, says Núñez.

Of 123 people with neoplasia treated with the mango product, 87.3 percent reported improvements in quality of life factors, including the normalisation of haematological parameters, reduced pain and swelling and improved vital signs.

“The treatment might not cure cancer, but it improves the tumour patient’s quality of life, which is a major achievement,” Núñez told a group of ambassadors in Cuba, adding that the lab is ready to accept proposals for partnerships or collaboration in producing and marketing Vimang.

In treating pain and inflammation, the mango-based medicine works as well as the anti- inflammatories ibuprofen, indomethacine and naproxene, but with the advantage that it does not damage the stomach lining if taken over an extended period.

Of the women treated for infertility with Vimang, 87.5 percent were able to conceive, and in cases of asthma, diabetes type II, skin infections and lupus erithematosus the results were “significant.”

An anti-oxidant par excellence, Vimang prevents free radicals from forming in quantities that can threaten human health.

The physician explained that the medication may either stimulate healing processes to repair damage caused by free radicals or provide the appropriate chemicals to boost the organism’s ability to eliminate their excess.

Free radicals are atoms found within the human body that have one or more unpaired electrons, which boosts their reactivity and even stimulates them to create new substances in a chain-reaction process – thought to be a precursor to cancer formation.

Free radicals circulate throughout the body and can be found in all organs and tissues, which is why they represent a threat if the internal balance is altered.

The body’s reserves of anti-oxidants contribute to maintaining this balance, but when it is modified for any reason, internal or external, patients are recommended to take anti-oxidant supplements, said Núñez.

The continued and increased presence of environmental risk factors, including pollution and prolonged periods of mental and physical stress, are among the aspects of modern life that make it necessary to consume anti-oxidant products.

Núñez indicated that previous research on Vimang established that the substance provides 70 percent protection against free radical damage, and he recommended the product for anyone over age 45.

Around that age, humans begin to suffer small cerebral ischaemia, less oxygen finds its way to the brain and arteries begin to weaken. Though not evident to the individual, neurons are dying and if a major oxygen deficit develops, the person suffers a stroke, warned the expert.

The mango-based product is effective in very small quantities, he commented, in other words, a little goes a long way.

Núñez also stated that the results have been “astounding” compared to other currently available anti-oxidants that are used to protect against oxidant stress.

Mexico could be the first international market for Vimang if negotiations underway between the Cuban lab and Mexican officials are successful.

There are 1,245 varieties of mango in the world, and only 17 of those found in Cuba can be used to extract the raw material used to manufacture the anti-oxidant.

The Cuban pharmaceutical industry has seen extraordinary growth in recent years, reaching annual sales of approximately 100 million dollars.