Bitter Kola arrests Ebola Virus replication – Prof. Maurice Iwu

A Former chairman of the Independent National electoral Commission, INEC, and a pharmacognocist, Prof. Maurice Iwu (picture above) has said that Bitter Kola which he noted is not an Ebola cure but has the capability of arresting the Virus replication.

 Iwu who also chairs the Treatment Research Group inaugurated by the Federal Government on treatment and possible cure of Ebola also stated that having Ebola cases in Lagos is very unusual as the disease according to history is usually common in rural areas where there is unfortunate interaction between man and animal.

He also revealed that he belonged to a research group which was established around 1985 and their interest he noted at that time was medical condition that people don’t know about. The ex-INEC boss added that they try to look for anything that can cure such diseases.

“In 1999, our team then screened so many compounds. About 2,000 compounds against Ebola and other viruses which seems to have no treatment were screened and Ebola was among. We were lucky that a compound from Garcinia kola which is Bitter kola was able to arrest the replication of the Ebola virus. It was not a cure but that was a big clue.” He said.

Continuing, he explained that

 “Having Ebola in Lagos is unusual. The Ebola history that I have read so far has been in rural areas where there is unfortunate interaction between man and animal. But because of the incident that happened it shouldn’t have been in Lagos and it could have been horrible for such to happen in a highly populated city like Lagos.” 

“For us in Science what is upper most to us in the whole thing is that we check with evidence. According to a European noble philosopher who turned scientist  why is it that a dead fish is weigh more than living one and everybody said they didnt think   about it and nobody bothered to weigh the fish to know whether dead fish actually weigh more than living one. So that is the issue about the bitter kola and Ebola for anti-viral infection.  It is a known anti viral infection and immune booster and it has been used by man over a century. It began from ethnic use and  into experimental medicine, it will remain in use until it is disproved that it is not active.”

“What is even worse with Ebola is that those developments are at what we called phase 3 and that ultimately means that it has not been approved. It is not possible to have scientifically valid phase 3 trial for Ebola because you don’t have enough patients at any given time.”

“We pray not to have enough patients because on phase 3, we have to plan it, recruit patients and make sure that all the parameters to use are in order.”

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