Taking dips in lakes on a hot summer day, we prefer sandbanks but shun silt- mud is no good! But researchers of the Petroleum Chemistry Institute (RAS Siberian Branch) think otherwise. Sedimentary organic matter, they say, is endowed with wonderful medicinal properties.

The point is that lipids found in lacustrine sediments are formed from dead organisms of various evolutionary levels, the bioprod-ucts so-called. Next follows their microbial transformation, with biologically active substances being accumulated in definite, or specific places. Conducting a wide range of geochemical studies of such organic compounds (and associated ballast, carcinogenic substances), petrochemistry researchers have concluded that lacustrine silt may be used with much effect in pharmacology. Joining hands with pharmacologists of the Siberian Medical University, they have developed a protective remedy for hepatitis, the EPLIR (acronym of the extract polar lipids rock), containing 20 percent phospholi-pids (in particular, phosphatidyl-choline, phosphatidylethanol-amine and sulpholipids - 2 percent each); 8 percent carote- noids; and thiocyclanes and ioalkanes - 5 percent each.

The new medication, EPLIR, is found to have a good curative effect for acute hepatitis caused by hepatoxins, the initiators of lipid peroxidation (LP), and also bygalactosamine, which inhibits protein synthesis. The preparation arrests necrosis of the liver tissue, restores the normal ultra-structure of liver cells and their functional activity. More than that, EPLIR normalizes in-trarenal blood circulation and blood composition on the whole.

Human trials of EPLIR in clinics of Moscow and Tomsk have confirmed its high therapeutic efficiency and harmless-ness. It scores extremely high for chronic hepatitis cases, the victims of viral infection or alcoholic intoxication.

The Pharmacological State Committee of the RF Public Health Ministry has recommended EPLIR as a hepatoprotector remedy and given permission for its commercial production.

Used as a raw material for this medication are silt sulphide muds. And a concentrate of water-soluble biologically active

substances goes for another preparation, the ESOBEL, produced in the form of a dry extract of fango (salt for baths, gargles, lotions, compresses) and as massage cream. It is an effective pain-killer and tonic, and potent as an anti- inflammatory and resolving agent. ESOBEL is good for mucous membrane inflammations - namely, for acute and chronic rhinitis, tonsillitis, stomatitis and for the inflammation of the upper respiratory tracts. And the massage cream is quite good for osteo-chondrosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and other diseases of the locomo-tor system.

The above remedies are already in use at health centers of Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Vladivostok and Moscow.

Nauka v Sibiri (Science in Siberia), 1999

Prepared by Arkady MALTSEV

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