威尔士科学家发现水仙花可以治疗早老性痴呆

 
水仙花是威尔士的国花，在水仙花中发现的一种物质，或许可以用于治疗阿尔茨海默病（AD），这是一种最常见的痴呆，患者伴有记忆丧失。

在东威尔士的Black山区茁壮成长的某些特定种类的水仙花，可以产生加兰他敏，这种药物可以减轻记忆丧失的症状。Cardiff大学的制造工程中心，与威尔士大学的草原与环境研究学院合作，正在帮助将农业水仙花开发成为药用植物。

该中心正在提供从田野中收获到具有药理作用产品上市方面全方位的支持。这包括改造植物的生长，是它们每年生长超过一次，以及帮助种植者在最合适的时候收获植物。

制造工程中心的市场部主任Frank Marsh指出：“加兰他敏具有重大的投资价值，而且威尔士山区农场的潜能巨大。获益将是极其广泛的，而并不仅仅是对威尔士的生物科学和制药工业带来利益。”

Daffodils to Treat Alzheimer’s
 
A substance found in daffodils, the national flower of Wales, may help treat patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia that is accompanied by loss of memory.

Certain daffodil species, which thrive in the Black Mountains of eastern Wales, produce galanthamine, a drug designed to alleviate loss-of-memory symptoms. The Manufacturing Engineering Center of Cardiff University (Wales, UK;) is helping to develop the agricultural potential of the daffodil as a medicinal plant, along with the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research at the University of Wales, Aberystwyh (UK).

The center is providing support ranging from harvesting in the field to marketing the pharmaceutical product. This includes assisting with the science of developing crops more than once a year and helping growers to assess when is the best time to harvest the crop.

“Galanthamine has major investment potential,” stated Frank Marsh, marketing director of the Manufacturing Engineering Center. “Furthermore, the potential for Welsh hill farms is huge. The benefits are extensive, not only to Welsh bioscience and the pharmaceutical industry.