Paul Kirk
South Africans are increasingly using flaxseed oil capsules as an anti-malarial remedy amid false claims that scientists have vetted the drugs.
The capsules have already proved popular in Johannesburg, and are now catching on fast in KwaZulu-Natal.
But experts warned this week that the leaflets accompanying the drugs are “blatantly untrue” and are misleading buyers about the product.
The brochure accompanying the capsules boasts about research conducted by Dr Orville Levander and Arber Agnew of the United States Department of Agriculture. The blurb does not explain exactly what the doctors found. But one of the scientists involved makes it clear that the results of his work have little relevance to people.
“While it is true that we tested this material some years back for its anti- malarial properties,” says Levander, a top scientist at the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Centre in the US, “all of this work was done with mice and we did not do any human studies with it.” His research was restricted to the use of very specific rodents, in conditions that cannot be extrapolated to humans.
“The [anti-malarial properties of] flaxseed oil manifested itself fully only when the mice were also vitamin E- deficient … The requirement for vitamin E deficiency to demonstrate the efficacy of the flaxseed oil, of course, imposes a severe limitation on the use of this material as far as people are concerned, since humans are rarely deficient in vitamin E and, if they are, they probably have health problems to worry about other than malaria.”
The M&G has established that neither the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health nor the national Department of Health have tested or approved flaxseed as a malaria preventative.
Dr Andrew Jamieson of British Airways Travel Clinics says: “This particular promotion is dangerous – not only does it appear to be blatantly untrue on a scientific basis, but it promotes the use of a substance utilising what appears to be fabricated evidence. Travellers are warned to be aware of this fairly unsophisticated confidence trick, and not to place the health of themselves and their families at risk. Malaria can be a killer, and innocent people will die unnecessarily if this deception is allowed to continue.”