HBV

I am a HBV inactive carrier and it is there since the 10 years.  I had not taken any medicines so far.  But last week I consulted a gastro entrologist at Chennai.  He has prescribed a herbal medicines which has been patented in 2003 for six months.  It is LOVANTHIN, BASED on Phallathus amorous plant extracts.  I would like to ask the other carriers whether they have taken such a medicine and its efficacy.  will it be able to make the HBsAg Negative.

tan126

[cajim]

I searched the internet and there was no mention that HBsAg was made negative with LOVANTHIN.  There is mention that it is for patients with HepB.

Maybe you could ask your doctor his reason for prescribing this medicine, what he hopes to achieve, etc. and share the information by posting here.

Best wishes

[cajim]

From:  http://www.rain-tree.com/chanca.htm

The liver-protecting activity of chanca piedra (=Phallathus amorous) is another subject which has been established with clinical research with animals and humans. These effects have been attributed to (at least) two novel plant chemicals in chanca piedra named phyllanthin and hypophyllanthin. The researchers who reported the cholesterol-lowering effects also reported that chanca piedra protected rats from liver damage induced by alcohol, and normalized a "fatty liver." One in vitro study and four in vivo studies (with rats and mice) document that extracts of chanca piedra effectively protect against liver damage from various chemical liver toxins. Two human studies reported chanca piedra's liver protective and detoxifying actions in children with hepatitis and jaundice. Indian researchers reported that chanca piedra was an effective single drug in the treatment of jaundice in children, and British researchers reported that children treated with a chanca piedra extract for acute hepatitis had liver function return to normal within five days. Researchers in China also reported liver protective actions when chanca piedra was given to adults with chronic hepatitis.
A 2000 study even documented that chanca piedra increased the life span of mice with liver cancer from thirty-tree weeks (control group without treatment) to fifty-two weeks. Another research group tried to induce liver cancer in mice that had been pre-treated with a water extract of chanca piedra. Their results indicated the chanca piedra extract dose-dependently lowered tumor incidence, levels of carcinogen-metabolizing enzymes, levels of liver cancer markers, and liver injury markers. Both studies indicate that the plant has a better ability to prevent and slow down the growth of tumors rather than a direct toxic effect or ability to kill cancer cells.
It may well be that chanca piedra's documented ability to stop cells from mutating plays an important factor in this reported anticancerous activity. In several animal studies (as well as within cell cultures), extracts of chanca piedra have stopped or inhibited cells (including liver cells) from mutating in the presence of chemical substances known to create cellular mutations and DNA strand breaks (which can lead to the creation of cancerous cells). Again, one of these studies indicated that chanca piedra inhibited several enzyme processes peculiar to cancer cells' replication and growth-rather than a direct toxic effect of killing the cancer cell (sarcoma, carcinoma, and lymphoma cells were studied). This cellular-protective quality was evidenced in other research which indicated that chanca piedra protected against chemically-induced bone marrow damage in mice, as well as against radiation-induced damage in mice.
The last area of published research (which is the most extensive and the most confusing) concerns chanca piedra's antiviral properties. Both human and animal studies indicate that chanca piedra can protect the liver, even during hepatitis infection. Chanca piedra has also been reported to have direct antiviral activity in human, animal, and test tube studies against the Hepatitis B virus. Over 20 clinical studies have been published to date about these effects, and the results have been inconsistent and confusing (unless thoroughly evaluated).
Hepatitis is enough of a worldwide concern to merit sifting through the disparate studies. Hepatitis B infection (HBV) is the leading cause of liver cancer worldwide - which is considered 100% fatal. Carriers of HBV are 200 times more likely to develop liver cancer decades after initial infection. Many people who contract HBV become chronic (and, often, asymptomatic) carriers of the disease while still being contagious to others. HBV is reported to be 100 times more infectious than HIV and, like HIV, is transmitted through blood transfusions, needles, sexual contact, and in utero (from mother to child in the womb). Statistics on HBV are staggering: one out of every 250 Americans are HBV carriers! The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 200,000 new U.S. cases of HBV infection per year are added to the current estimate of one million carriers in the U.S. (and an estimated 300 million worldwide). The CDC also reports that (in the U.S.) 3,000 - 4,000 annual deaths from cirrhosis and 1,000 deaths from liver cancer are HBV-related. So when Dr. Baruch Blumberg reported that chanca piedra could clear up the chronic carrier state of Hepatitis B in 1988, it was a big deal. Dr. Blumberg was the winner of the 1963 Nobel Prize for discovering the HBV antigen in the first place. This led to the discovery that HBV was the primary cause of liver cancer and initiated the development of HBV vaccines.
Most of Blumberg's early research was carried out in India in collaboration with an Indian research group. Their first human study reported that a water extract of Phyllanthus amarus cleared the HBV surface antigen from 22 of 37 chronic HBV patients in only 30 days (and they continued to test negative for 9 months, at which time the report was published). This same group had published several earlier in vitro studies as well as animal (woodchuck) studies. (Woodchucks respond to chronic HBV infection in much the same manner as do humans which is why they are chosen for such research). All reported similar and effective anti-HBV effects. By that time, Blumberg was employed with the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia; he, Fox Chase, and the Indian researchers filed two patents on the plant's ability to treat HBV and its antiviral properties in 1985 and 1988 (now calling the plant P. niruri). The first patent was specific to HBV; the second stated that the plant's antiviral properties were achieved in part through a strong inhibition of reverse transcriptase (chemicals necessary for many types of viruses to grow) which made it possible to treat such retroviruses as HIV and sarcoma and leukemia viruses.
It was also during this time that the group developed a new and "better" extraction process. This process involved multiple, complicated extractions in which the plant was first soaked in cold water, then the resulting fluid was extracted first in hexane, then in benzene, then in methanol, and back into water. Their documentation revealed, however, that they didn't know specifically what the active chemicals were in the final extract that were providing the antiviral effects! While it was certainly a complicated and patentable process, much of the subsequent published research by this group throughout the 1990s using this new, patented "water extract" conflicted with their earlier studies, and was not as effective in the in vivo research for HBV. This caused much confusion as to whether chanca piedra (P. niruri or P. amarus) was an effective treatment or not. To add to the confusion, in 1994, a New Zealand research group prepared a chemically-altered extract (of P. amarus) which was standardized to the geraniin chemical content (the chemical documented with analgesic and hypotensive properties). They started a double-blind HBV human trial, later discontinued it due to lack of response, and published another negative result study.

[cajim]

Meanwhile, a separate research group in China (where HBV is wide-spread) working with a straight water extract and/or herb powder published two positive studies showing good results with human HBV patients in 1994 and 1995. Their second study suggested that different results were obtained through different Phyllanthus species of plants used (and that yet another species - P. urinaria provided the best anti-HBV results). The Chinese published a more recent (2001) study which compared 30 chronic HBV patients taking a chanca piedra extract to 25 patients taking interferon (the leading conventional drug used for HBV) for three months. Both treatments showed an equal effectiveness of 83%, but the chanca piedra group rated significantly higher in the normalization of liver enzymes and recovery of liver function than the interferon-treated group. They published yet another study in 2003 which attributed the anti-HVB effects mainly to four chemicals in chanca piedra: niranthin, nirtetralin, hinokinin, and geraniin.
Finally, The Cochrane Hepato-Biliary Research Group in Copenhagen reviewed all the HBV published research (22 randomized trials) and published an independent review of the results. It stated that treatment with "Phyllanthus herb" (they acknowledged the confusion among the various species used) had "a positive effect on clearance of serum HBsAg" (HBV surface antigen) comparable to interferon and was better than nonspecific treatment or other herbal medicines for HBV and liver enzyme normalization." They also indicated that large trials were warranted due to these documented positive effects and the lack of standardization of the research methods and plant species used in the various published studies to date.
Concerned with HIV specifically, a Japanese research group reported that a simple water extract of P. niruri inhibited HIV-1 reverse transcriptase in 1992. (Several conventional drugs used today against HIV are classified as "reverse transcriptase inhibitors.") They attributed this effect to a plant chemical in chanca piedra called repandusinic acid A. When they tested this chemical individually it demonstrated significant toxicity to HIV-1 at very small dosages (a 90% in vitro inhibition using only 2.5 mcg). Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute isolated yet another chemical in chanca piedra with anti-HIV actions-a novel compound that they named niruriside and described in a 1996 study. A German research organization published their first study on chanca piedra and its application with HIV therapy (reporting a 70-75% inhibition of virus) in 2003. In addition to these antiviral properties, the plant has also been documented other antimicrobial effects. Chanca piedra demonstrated in vitro antibacterial actions against Staphylococcus, Micrococcus, and Pasteurella bacteria as well as in vivo and in vitro antimalarial properties, which validates other traditional uses.

[tan126]

As I wrote earlier, I got tested HBsAG, HBeAb, Antibody to HBeAb & viral load.  The values are as below.
HBsAg: Positive
Hepatitis B envelop antigen: Negative
antibody to Hepatitis b envelop antigen:Positive
DNA Virus detection test (Viral load): 1049 IU/ml, i.e. 1049 x 7 = 7343 copies/ml.

Can anyone tell me the status of my disease, is it possible to make my HbsAg negative, how long I should take this treatment, i.e. Lovanthin, how frequently, i should take the above tests to monitor the progression/digression of the disease.

awaiting replies from HBV carriers like me.

[cajim]

HBsAg: Positive = You have HepB
Hepatitis B envelop antigen: Negative = You are not in acute stage
antibody to Hepatitis b envelop antigen:Positive = You may be clearing HBV
DNA Virus detection test (Viral load): 1049 IU/ml, i.e. 1049 x 7 = 7343 copies/ml. = You have HBV activity

Sounds like you still have HBV.  Can't comment on Lovanthin, no experience.

Best

[rafi86]

hello Dr. cajim
my sister has Hbsag positive, we did all the profiles of HBV all other for example Hbe, Hbeag, Lft, Ast are normal, is it dangrous, is there any way that we can reactive Hbsag, just let me know plz
thanks

[cajim]

I am not a doctor.  I am a patient with HBV.

Could you list the test items with their values, not just normal, for different people mean normal differently.

What do you mean by "we can reactive Hbsag"?

[krs123]

what is the power of lovanthin (200 mg or 500 mg) you are taking?
what is the dose? can you tell me the these details?

[hehehehehehe]

heehehehhehehhehee