Intel Award Winner Tests Ayurvedic Herb on Pseudomonas

[Celebration]

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060521/NEWS/605210380/-1/FEAT07

Madhavi Pulakat Gavini, 16, of Starkville, Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science in Columbus, "Engineering of a Novel Inhibitor of Biofilm-Encapsulated Pathogens," Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award, $50,000 scholarship; Department of Homeland Security, $20,000 scholarship; Best of Category, Medicine and Health, $5,000 and a computer to the student and $1,000 to the school; first, Medicine and Health, $3,000; first, American Association for Clinical Chemistry, $1,000; first, Ashtavadhani Vidwan Ambati Subbaraya Chetty Foundation, $1,000 in U.S. savings bonds.

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She became interested in the topic because a friend from Ohio has an aunt with cystic fibrosis. Because the disease runs in families her friend could someday also have it, Gavini said. "It'll be a couple more years before they can determine if she has it," Gavini said.

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060520/fob7.asp

Inspired by her grandmother, who practices holistic medicine called ayurveda, Gavini, 16, examined extracts of the herb Terminalia chebula, a relative of the walnut that has been used as an antiseptic. Gavini found that the substance kills the drug-resistant infectious bacterium Pseudomonas, which can be fatal to people with compromised immune systems. "No treatment on the market can do that," she says.

http://www.indiawest.com/view.php?subaction=showfull&id=1148511652&archive=&start_from=&ucat=11

Gavini, 16, discovered a novel method to destroy a common and deadly infectious bacterium - Pseudomonas aeruginosa - that causes secondary infections that often lead to death in patients with compromised immune systems, such as those with cancer, AIDS and serious burns.

"Basically I found a molecule that's present in an herbal extract that is capable of inhibiting the growth of (the bacteria)," Gavini explained to India-West. "Which is something that none of these treatment plans in the market can do."

Gavini said the idea for the project came after she received a five-volume set of books on Indian medicinal plants from her Kerala-based grandfather M.V.K. Warrier, an ayurvedic physician, historian and editor of a ayurvedic magazine called Aryavaidya.

She said she spent a lot of time on the project. "Several hours a week, every weekend I had, summer breaks, winter vacations, every time I had free, I spent on this," she said.