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Quillay contains the saponins QS7 and QS21, which are suitable as adjuvants, one of the two constituent elements of the vaccine.
The Chilean biotechnology company Desert King has discovered that the Mapuche tree quillai It contains two substances that could be used to make a vaccine against the coronavirus, the Deutsche Welle (DW) channel reported on Friday.
This company has developed a process to extract the active substances from the bark and wood of Quillaja saponaria – also known as ‘soap bark tree’ -, dry them and then turn them into a powder that they sell to the British branch of the firm American Novavax.
“Stimulates the immune response”
“The vaccine consists of two elements: the antigen and the so-called adjuvant,” Desert King CEO Andrés González explained to DW. “The antigen activates the immune system and the adjuvant is the carrier of the antigen, which introduces it into the cells, which also stimulates the immune response,” he added.
The scientists analyzed the almost 50 different types of saponins from this tree and identified two substances that are suitable as adjuvants, QS7 and QS21, which could represent an advance in the race for the development of an effective vaccine against the new disease.
On September 25, the US company announced that it had started a phase III study with a vaccine against covid-19, detailing that up to 10,000 volunteers between 18 and 84 years old are participating in the trials.
Other medicinal uses
“We are already producing QS7 and QS21 quillay saponins in industrial quantities for Novavax,” González said without giving an exact figure. He also said that he believes that the pharmaceutical company could start producing doses of the possible vaccine as soon as phase III tests are finished, that is, in early 2021.
The Mapuche indigenous people already knew since the seventeenth century the healing effect from the bark and flowers of the quillay, which grows up to 20 meters high. In fact, they use its flowers to make an infusion that they take as medicine to treat rheumatic ailments.
They also use the bark extract of this tree as expectorant for respiratory diseases and against stomach ailments. They also use the bark to make natural shampoo, beer and other beverages.
The quillay, something more than firewood
“Owls, foxes and snakes find a natural habitat in our quillay plantations,” explains González, underlining that “all of them are natural predators of rodents such as mice or rats, transmitters of the hantavirus.” The director of the company also warns that the tree has been affected in recent years by the droughts registered in Chile.
For his part, researcher René Carmona assures that, in the medium and long term, the company’s objective is to increase the content of the types of saponin of pharmaceutical relevance, which is currently around 6%, underlining that it is “an extraordinarily high value”.
“The fact that an international pharmaceutical company uses this substance in the development of a vaccine helps us to spread the value of this tree”, emphasizes Carmona. “We hope that people reflect and stop turning quillay into firewood,” he concluded.
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