There are currently a number of clinial trials running in western countries to establish efficacy in double blind studies. Some of these are in australia, including one in brisbane for psoriasis.
Triptolide appears to have a similar antiinflammatory effect to prednisone, but works on very different principles. It also does not have the dangerous side effects of prednisone on bone density and insulin levels.
My main interest in triptolide is the regulatory effect it has on autoreactive T cells, ie T cells that attack the tissues of the body by error. This is what drives conditions like psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and a whole host of other inflammatory conditions. In my case there is a high likelihood that my GI problems are at least partially due to an autoimmune condition and as other autoreactive T cells conditions run in my family it seems a safe bet to target these first.
The main reason why I am documenting my experiments in this forum rather than the pharmacology forum is becuase I want this to be indexed by google. Research into Tripterygium wilfordii has been going on since the 90's, yet the data available online is very patchy. In particular I found it very difficult to find the actual dose for immunosuppressant treatment. Most articles simple refer to an ethyl acetate extract and then give the dosage in form of this extract. As I could only source one strength of extract from china I had almost decided that it must all be the same potency. This is however not the case. Obviously there have been advances in extraction techniques, because the extract available today is far more potent than the extract from the 90's. So much so that if you follow the instructions of consuming 360mg of extract you would be taking triple the LD50. OOOPS!
I had to buy 4 papers to track down the actual manufacturing method and hence the dosages used in those trials. So here is the summary:
Tripterygium wilfordii root is extracted consecutively into ethanol and then ethyl acetate. The extracts are combined and dried on starch.
The old extracts contained 9.9 microgram of triptolide [and others] per 30mg and was dosed in 30mg capsules.
The new extracts contain 0.5% triptolide [and others], which means to get 10 micrograms in a capsule you only need 2mg of the new extract. ie todays extract is 15 times as potent as the one used in all the literature.
All treatments start at 30mg extract [9.9micrograms triptolide] and are increased at 2 weeks intervals by a further 30mg extracts if there has not been sufficient response. For immunosuppressant activity doses of 180-570mg of the old extract are required.
For the new extract this would be 2mg to start with, increased by 2mg every 2 weeks up to 12mg which is the lower end of the 'high dose' regimen. The higher end of the high dose regimen would be 38mg of new extract.
I should also mention that ther eis a low dose regimen which is used for a completely unrelated purpose. At low doses the herb/extract will render sperm dead and/or immotile. Low doses will kill about 90% of sperm and will render the remainder immotile. As there are usually no side effect at the low doses, Tripterygium extracts can be used as male contraceptives.
The sperm killing activity is generally regarded as temporary, however there are some indications that very long use [years] and advancing age can cause a permanent reduction in sperm function.
Male infertility is also the main side effect listed for the high dose treatment. other side effects include headaches, digestive problems, liver toxicity and general immune reactions. Cessation of the supplement also stops the side effects.
There are other interesting aspects of this plant. It appears to protect rats that have a parkinsons-like condition from developing the disease and this appears to be by protecting the dopamine receptors.
Anyway, tonight I am taking my first 2mg of extract, ie 10 micrograms of triptolide. hopefully i've done my calculations right
I am not expecting any immediate results, so this will be a slow thread, but I will post updates when I escalate the dose [which I may do weekly rather than fortnightly]. I am not expecting much until i hit the 12mg mark.
Anyone else interested in playing with this let me know as I have plenty of the extract and would be happy to share at cost since it has a limited shelf life. Obviously I am not providing it for consumption and what you do with it would be entirely your own responsibility. This is a very dangerous herb and even after 30 odd hours of study I am still a little hesitant - less so now that I've finally worked out the dosage issues.
