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Anyone w/any personal experience with the following?

Herb Banaba lowers Blood Sugar

STUDIES SHOW PHILIPPINE HERB BANABA LOWERS BLOOD SUGAR: HOPE FOR DIABETES AND WEIGHT-LOSS

March 13, 2003
>From a press release

WEST BEND, Wis. -- Tropical Traditions has introduced the first full-profile
banaba-leaf herb extract for lowering blood sugar. Banaba is a popular
medicine plant in the Philippines and is used in treatment of diabetes
mellitus.
Numerous studies have been done on this remarkable herb, much of it in
Japan, with researchers such as Dr. Yamazaki, professor of Pharmaceutical
Science, Hiroshima University School of Medicine, showing that the active
component in banaba was corosolic acid. His studies indicate that corosolic
acid activates the transport of glucose across cell membranes, resulting in
blood sugar reductions.
Following the studies done by the Japanese which isolated corosolic acid as
the active component, other studies followed. In 1999 a clinical study was
conducted on diabetes patients by Dr. William V. Judy at the Southeastern
Institute of Biomedical Research, Bradenton, Florida, which found that
corosolic acid universally lowered blood sugar levels of all patients. The
higher the dosage of corosolic acid, the lower blood sugar levels dropped.
However, more recent studies have shown that the entire herb is useful in
lowering blood sugar, and that corosolic acid is probably not the only
active ingredient in banaba leaves. A study published in 2001 by Edison
Biotechnology Institute, Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of
Osteopathic Medicine, in Athens, Ohio compared a whole leaf extract of
banaba with insulin in cell cultures. They concluded that the whole herb
had a glucose lowering effect and could be used to fight diabetes and
obesity. A study reported in the Feb. 2002 volume of Planta Med stated that
corosolic acid alone could not account for the glucose transport effect of
banaba extracts, and identified at least three active components.
However, most supplements available on the market today that contain banaba
extract have only corosolic acid extract. Tropical Traditions is one of the
first to offer a full herb supplement made from wild organic banaba leaves.
Doctors in the Philippines have been using banaba to successfully treat
diabetes patients for years. Tropical Traditions has been producing banaba
capsules for four years in the Philippines, and they have been used by Dr.
Marie Onate, M.D., in her hospital in Lucena City successfully during that
time among her diabetes patients. Their new product, a fully standardized
full-profile herbal extract of banaba, and a standardized corosolic acid
extract packaged together in vegicaps, was introduced in the US March 2003.
Because of the way banaba helps the body to handle glucose (glucose
transport activator), it is also used effectively in weight-loss products.
Supplementwatch.com says: "An interesting 'side-effect' of tighter control
of blood sugar and insulin levels is a significant tendency of banaba to
promote weight loss (an average of 2-4 lbs. per month) without significant
dietary alterations. It is likely that modulation of glucose and insulin
levels reduces total caloric intake somewhat and encourages moderate weight
loss."