
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, November 1, 1993                   TAG: 9311010083
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

KUDZU VINE MAY BE WEAPON IN FIGHT AGAINST ALCOHOLISM

Kudzu, an imported nuisance weed that often chokes trees in Southern forests, may contain extracts that conquer the craving for alcohol, a study shows.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School, intrigued by the ancient Chinese use of the kudzu roots to treat alcoholism, tested compounds from the plant on a group of hard-drinking hamsters and found that the rodents voluntarily went on the wagon.

Dr. Bert L. Vallee of the Harvard Medical School said the kudzu extract "has been used widely in China and Japan for centuries to treat alcoholism. You can buy the stuff in pill form over the counter in Japan and China."

Vallee and his colleague, Wing-Ming Keung, collected information about kudzu from doctors in Asia and found that since about A.D. 200, it has been a treatment to suppress alcohol consumption.

"They make a concoction of it and drink it as tea," Vallee said.

To test its effect on alcohol craving, the researchers used an unusual animal called the Syrian golden hamster, which has the unique characteristic of having a huge appetite and capacity for alcohol.

In a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vallee and Keung report that if given the choice, the hamster will develop an alcohol consumption rate that, if scaled up to human size, would be about 40 times greater than the capacity of the typical human drunk.

This was established by giving caged hamsters the side-by-side choice of drinking from a dish of pure water or from a dish that contained a 15 percent solution of alcohol and water. The hamsters preferred the cocktail.

The active ingredient in kudzu was synthesized and then injected into 71 of the hamsters.

The rodents immediately cut back on their alcohol consumption.

"The effect was that it reduced the alcohol intake by more 50 percent," said Vallee.

The kudzu compounds also were tested against approved drugs now commonly used to blunt the appetite for drink in human alcoholics. Vallee said the kudzu products worked better.

Vallee said the kudzu did not affect the hamsters' appetite and seemed to produce no toxicity.

Vallee said he hopes that the drug will ready for clinical testing in humans within a year.

by CNB