Dr. LAWRENCE WILLIAMS says more success for Guinea Hen Weed which is grown wild in JAMAICA.....and its potential for curing certain types of cancer, including those of the prostate, brain, breast, skin, lung and bladder, is also proving to be effective against degenerative diseases such as arthritis, diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease,

BY KIMONE THOMPSON Features Editor — Sunday thompsonk@jamaicaobserver.com

YOU'VE no doubt heard about the Guinea Hen Weed and its potential for curing certain types of cancer, including those of the prostate, brain, breast, skin, lung and bladder.

Dr Lawrence Williams points to a chart in his lab
 explaining how DTS attacks cancerous cells, without
 harming healthy ones. (PHOTOS: LIONEL ROOKWOOD)

But that's only half the story. The weed, which grows wild in Jamaica, is also proving to be effective against degenerative diseases such as arthritis, diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, according to the scientist driving the research, Dr Lawrence Williams, a consultant at the Scientific Research Council (SRC).

Williams isolated a compound from the plant, called dibenzyl trisulphide (DTS), which he said is more potent than the other forms in which the weed exists on the market. He currently has a group of about 40 people using the compound — as well as a liqueur made from soaking the leaves of the plant in wine — in local trials, and said that the formulation was proving to be "very effective".

"I isolated a pure compound — the DTS — which is far more powerful than the capsules made from the guinea hen weed. When DTS is absorbed through the intestine walls and binds to the albumin, the anti-cancer properties go up 2,500-fold," he told the Jamaica Observer.

Albumin is a protein in the blood which transports hormones and fatty acids, regulates acidity levels, among other things..

"It's very effective against prostate and breast cancer," Dr Williams said.

Outside of that, however, Dr Williams said that DTS had implications for diseases associated with ageing.

"The key breakthrough is that DTS can reprogramme the thymus. We think it is going to change the face of medicine," he told the Sunday Observer in a recent interview. "It could be a broad spectrum cure for disease," he added.

Guinea Hen Weed Plant

The thymus is an organ in the chest which produces T-lymphocytes — a group of white blood cells which are critical in the adaptive immune system.

Perhaps the best news is that the DTS formulation zeros in on cancer cells and does not attack healthy cells, unlike other forms of treatment, like chemotherapy. "Research showed further that the compounds in anamu (the South American name for Guinea Hen Weed) were able to differentiate between normal cells and cancer cells, killing only the cancerous cells. In addition, other substances in the herb stimulate the body's natural defences," according to excerpts from a scientific paper on the wall in Dr Williams' lab.

"DTS is not toxic to normal cells, but any cell in the body that is pathological it will destroy, so it is selective mode of action that the DTS has when it is isolated from the Guinea Hen Weed," he stated.

"It doesn't seem to be toxic, which means there are no side effects," the scientist continued.

Williams, who is credited with developing the Bovine Serum Albumin assay — which replaces the use of animals in laboratory testing, and which was instrumental in developing the DTS — is now seeking to raise US$20 million for clinical trials and is partnering with an American scientist to that end. more