Thailand launches study of green chirette to treat Covid-19

Thailand will set up a committee to study the use of green chirette to treat Covid-19 patients with mild symptoms.

This study on the medicinal plant green chirette or Andrographis paniculata (fah talai jone in Thai) was ordered by the Thai Prime Minister, Prayut Chan-o-cha.

The announcement was made at a government meeting on Tuesday, July 20, which was called to discuss additional measures to help curb the Covid-19 outbreak, the Prime Minister said on Wednesday, July 21.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul was appointed to head the committee.

He will coordinate studies on the safety and efficacy of green chirette extracts on Covid-19 patients, and draft a strategic plan to promote traditional Thai medicine in general.

The move came in response to a proposal by Justice Minister Somsak Thepsutin, who urged the government to step up the use of traditional medicines for Covid-19 patients with mild symptoms.

See: Inmates infected with Covid-19 in Thailand recover thanks to green chirette

This decision comes amid a vaccine shortage that has drawn criticism from the government.

His proposal is based on evidence showing that the Department of Corrections successfully treated 12,376 inmates infected with Covid-19 with green chirette extracts.

Of these, 5,045 inmates were in Chiang Mai Central Prison, 2,100 in Nonthaburi Provincial Prison and 5,231 in Bang Kwang Central Prison, also in Nonthaburi, Somsak said.

Before prescribing the herbal medicine to infected inmates, Mr. Somsak said he studied information from the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine, which recommended a dose of 180 mg of andrographolides from green chirette for five consecutive days for patients with mild symptoms.

Citing the same research, the minister said that each rai of land (1 rai = 1,600 m2) can produce up to 600 kg of green chirettes, which can be processed into about 375,000 capsules of plant extracts, he said.

A total of 3.1 billion of these capsules will be needed to cover all Thais, meaning 8,400 rai of land will need to be planted with this grass, he added.

The Department of Corrections now plans to produce about 50 million capsules of the herbal remedy over the next four months, to be prescribed to about 50 percent of the prison population, he added.

Due to its medicinal benefits, green chirette has become a highly sought-after cash crop in the export sector, he added.

Mr. Somsak added that the medicinal plant costs about 450 baht (11.61 euros) per kilo.

See also:

Thailand supports use of medicinal plant to treat Covid-19

Andrographis paniculata (green chirette), the anti-flu medicinal plant

Source: Bangkok Post