By Sean Henahan, Access Excellence

BOSTON, MA- A traditional Chinese herbal treatment for alcohol abuse really does appear to suppress craving for liquor, at least in alcoholic hamsters, report Harvard researchers.

The researchers conducted a series of studies with an herb used in traditional Chinese medicine to reduce alcohol cravings. Unlike most laboratory rodents, the hamsters will choose alcohol over water when offered a choice, making them a natural choice for alcoholism studies.

Thirty ethanol-preferring Syrian golden hamsters received either daidzin, the active ingredient in the herb, or disulfiram, the active ingredient in Antabuse, a drug used to deter alcohol craving in humans. Nine other hamsters served as controlled and could drink as much ethanol as they wished. Alcoholic hamsters receiving the Chinese herb displayed a marked reduction in alcohol craving, in the same range as those receiving disulfiram. Alcohol intake dropped by 70% in hamsters receiving daidzin, and 80% in those receiving disulfiram.

Daidzin suppresses alcohol consumption in hamsters without blocking the overall detoxification of acetaldehyde, the main metabolic product from ethanol, which has been shown to accumulate during Antabuse treatment and cause a broad spectrum of disagreeable, toxic, and even deadly effects.

The researchers believe that daidzin may modify alcohol consumption in laboratory animals by a biochemical pathway other than that catalyzed by mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase, believed to be primarily responsible for the detoxification of acetaldehyde. The herb has been used for centuries in China with no adverse side effects reported, but researchers stress that testing of synthesized daidzin is exploratory and restricted to laboratory animals.

Diadzin is a glucosylated isoflavone extracted from the kudzo vine (Radix puerariae) The compound may have potential in humans. It appears to exert it effects by a metabolic route less toxic than that observed in humans using Antabuse, the first-and until recently, the only- agent ever approved for treatment of alcoholism in the United States. Studies involving humans are expected to begin within a year or so. Another drug called naltrexone was recently approved for treatment of alcohol craving.

For more info. see: Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Sep. 11, 1995, Vol. 92, pp. 8990-8993, Keung et al.