>From today's Times of India:
Neem can cause genetic damage: Study ANI[ TUESDAY, JULY 22, 2003 12:53:54 AM ] WASHINGTON: The extracts of neem tree, long known for their medicinal benefits, have now been found damaging for the DNA of sperm when fed to mice, according to a new study. The researchers who made the discovery think that neem can be a 'long-term genetic hazard' and have called for further investigation to ensure that eating neem products does not produce genetic abnormalities in adults or their children, says a report in New Scientist. "Application of neem should 'at least' be restricted, says Parimal Khan of the Patna Women's College. For the study, he and Kripa Awasthy of the KKM College in Pakur made an extract of neem leaves and fed it daily to male mice for a week. A month later, the pair examined sperm-producing cells and sperm from the mice. They will report in a future issue of Food and Chemical Toxicology that as the dose of neem was raised in steps from 0.5 grams to 2.0 grams, the percentage of sperm-producing cells with chromosomal damage rose in tandem, from 18 to 25 per cent. In animals not given neem, the figure was just 5 per cent. Likewise, they found steadily rising rates of damage to sperm, with five per cent of sperm damaged at the lowest dose, rising to eight per cent at the highest. In controls, fewer than five per cent of the sperm were damaged. Sperm counts dropped, too, halving to six million per millilitre in mice on the highest doses. Again, the higher the dose, the worse the effect. However, the proponents of traditional Hindu Ayurvedic medicine passionately dispute the relevance of the results. "Neem has been used by millions of people in India over several centuries, and there has been no genotoxic effect reported so far," says Pramila Thakkar of the Neem Foundation, a Mumbai-based charity that promotes products from the neem tree (Azadirachta Indica). _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam
