- Stay Connected
Socialize
Latest Discovery: Banana Can Prevent HIV Infection
Definitely not a cure to AIDS but your favorite oblong fruit might be even healthier than you realized. According to The Gazette (Montreal) newspaper, a new study has found that chemicals commonly found in bananas are as potent in preventing HIV as two synthetic anti-HIV drugs.
Researchers say the findings could lead to a cheap new component for applied microbicides that prevent intimate transmission of HIV.
The miracle substance in bananas is called BanLec, a type of lectin, which are the sugar-binding proteins found in a variety of plants. Scientists have long been interested in lectins because of their ability to halt the chain reaction that leads to certain viral infections. In the case of BanLec, it works by binding naturally to the sugar-rich envelope that encases the HIV virus, thus blocking its entry into the body.
“The problem with some HIV drugs is that the virus can mutate and become resistant, but that’s much harder to do in the presence of lectins,” said lead author Michael D. Swanson. “Lectins can bind to the sugars found on different spots of the HIV-1 envelope, and presumably it will take multiple mutations for the virus to get around them.”
Swanson and his colleagues noted that even modest success in developing BanLec into a womanly or BehindBased microbicide could save millions of lives.
Furthermore, a BanLec ointment would be much cheaper to produce and distribute than most current anti-retroviral medications that require the production of synthetic components.
One thing’s for sure: new ways of stopping the transmission of HIV are desperately needed. Condoms are effective, but they are often used incorrectly or inconsistently, and in many cultures and developing countries women are not always in control of their intimate encounters.
The introduction of a cheap, long-lasting, self-applied ointment derived naturally from bananas could change all of that.
Posted by
Kaweme lukwesa
September 22, 2012 at 8:53 pm
In two years from now there will be no bananas lol.its not the cure but abstinence.
pyepye
September 23, 2012 at 12:18 am
all the banans will cut like no mans business.Trust in God only not on a banana
kakolwe
September 23, 2012 at 6:22 am
Thats why they say ‘diet is the key’. Its the organic bananas that are really potent, these shemically synthesized & genetically modified are doubted critically.
The Elder
September 23, 2012 at 6:56 am
Our ancestors discovered the medicinal properties of banana milleniums ago.we hve been using it for burns,toothache(roots) en well…as a highly active ingredients in aphrodiasics and in many more ailments.If it wasnt for the inferioty complex we hve on our traditional drugs we could by now have developed an HIV drug.
Black pipo
September 23, 2012 at 7:52 am
iwe chi tumfweko wats that nonsense?
Roga Roga
September 23, 2012 at 9:51 am
Da writer is clear,he says” definately not da cure”So dnt mess up yo lives hummering ama live.AIDS is painful guys.
Trywell Chifita
September 23, 2012 at 12:01 pm
Good diet is healthy and fruits are a good ingredient to good diets. A saying goes, an apple a day keeps a doctor away. Now it is actually a guava a day keeps doctors away. Guavas have been found to be more nutritious than apples.
Umuntu Real
September 23, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Inkonde shapwa twachula yaba!
Chipuba a Chizende
September 23, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Ahaaa! Pano tiyambe kutomba kwa zoona lyk no ones bizness! Nanga si kamtera kapezeka mu bananas! Prostitutes, here I come with my black banana in my pants! And a yellow one in my hands! condoms, contract terminated!
king julian
September 23, 2012 at 6:28 pm
Finally there is a cheap and effective way to prevent HIV
Getting married soon
September 23, 2012 at 7:16 pm
Life at a junction.
Judith
September 24, 2012 at 11:12 am
The president of Gambia is the first one who claimed this story about bananas a couple of years ago!!
Now its news in Zambia … ifyabupuba!
Candy
September 24, 2012 at 11:16 am
Surely the whites will wipe us out..The Author is using all those jargons to comfuse us into believing that indeed Prevention is at our doorstep…Later they will start expeimenting on a black muntu to see if such microbisides really works.Ba Tumfweko please stop publishing such nosense which is only meant to corrupt our moralss.Bane,ubu bufi…Bananas!My Foot!
Pingback: Canada: Latest Discovery; Banana Can Prevent HIV Infection | Kwatu
Napikidoli
September 24, 2012 at 2:05 pm
Read more in POZ, March 15, 2010. (This article ain’t new ba tumfweko!
“A chemical in bananas has been found to inhibit HIV, according to research findings from a University of Michigan Medical School published in the March 19 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. According to the study authors, this may lead to the development of inexpensive microbicides to prevent HIV transmission and, quite possibly, novel compounds to treat the disease. …
mh! iliko bad
September 24, 2012 at 7:26 pm
ma banana?
umu bemba nkonko
September 24, 2012 at 7:42 pm
kanshi bonse tukala chibaulafye ifima konde lyonse.Awe twapusuka mwe!Ala mweba sungu twatotela twatola nobwa panshi!
Kagelo
September 27, 2012 at 7:19 am
Let’s wait and see
ashmail
September 27, 2012 at 12:46 pm
roga roga i second you.
Molinyo
September 27, 2012 at 3:23 pm
For God to make bananas he knew that in future it will help man kind but just remember privation is better than cure.
mpho
September 28, 2012 at 6:11 am
The Elder, you are absolutely right, we have all the natural cures on planet earth to heal all the ailments.Most of the disease that we have today are man made including HIV.So this banana thing is not new. I would say our ancestor new better than we do,”Educated,masters, PHDs “you can’t even cure a common cold its a shame.
Oliver S
November 11, 2012 at 7:49 am
yeah that’s a good discovery, but the best way to prevent your self is abstinence chabe