The Philippine 

 Journal of Science 



Vol. 23 DECEMBER, 1923 No. 6 



CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC EXPERIMENTS WITH CHAUL- 

 MOOGRA AND ALLIED PREPARATIONS 



By Otto Schobl 1 

 Of the Serum Laboratory, Bureau of Science, Manila 



The work of Walker and Sweeney 2 aroused considerable 

 interest among laboratory workers and was shortly afterward 

 followed by reports along similar lines which apparently upset 

 all prospects of working out a satisfactory chaulmoogra treat- 

 ment for infectious diseases that are caused by acid-fast bacilli, 

 particularly tuberculosis. On the other hand, most satisfactory 

 results have been reported in the treatment of leprosy with 

 chaulmoogra oil and its derivatives, in Hawaii; and, although 

 these have not been duplicated in other parts of the world, the 

 consensus of opinion with regard to the efficacy of chaulmoogra 

 oil seems to be that the treatment brings about an improvement 

 in the majority of leper patients, though a complete cure is 

 not so frequent as the initial improvement of the patients leads 

 us to hope for. 



The great value of the work of Walker and Sweeney lies in 

 their having demonstrated experimentally the possibility of 

 working out certain fundamental problems in the chemothera- 

 peutics of chaulmoogra treatment. 



There are certain points in chaulmoogra therapy, disputed 

 by clinical workers, which can be and have been decided by 

 laboratory evidence. First of all, it has been demonstrated that 



'Member, Philippine Leprosy Research Board. 



'Walker, E. L., and Sweeney, M. A., The chemotherapeutics of the 

 chaulmoogric acid series and other fatty acids in leprosy and tuberculosis, 

 Journ. Inf. Dis. 1 (1920) 1. coo 



