Where might you have heard of this? Well, without getting my website removed, I’ll just say that there are a few websites out there who are trying to provide information for people who were weary of receiving their injections. These websites try to offer solutions or ways of minimizing certain side effects and suramin has been floating around lately as a sort of antidote for these people. They claim that suramin is found in pine needle tea, so I wanted to try to see if this was accurate.
So… Let’s fact check that. Without big pharma lining our pockets.
What on Earth is Suramin?
Suramin—also called Germanin— was first patented in 1917 after an application was put in by Bernhard Heymann, Richard Kothe, Oskar Dressel, and Anton Ossenbeck three years prior on December 17th, 1914. When it was first introduced in a Bayer lab, it was given the inspiring name of “Molecule 205.” Chemical formula: C51H40N6O23S6 versus its analog Trypan blue C34H24N6Na4O14S4. Trypan blue being a derivative from toluidine which is extracted through the distillation of pine oil. As you can see, there is a huge separation from pine needles to get to the analog of suramin. It would be an understatement to say that suramin is derived from pine needles.
Largely known as a growth factor receptor antagonist Suramin is currently only used in the treatment of river blindness (onchocerciasis) as well as African sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis). This medication is not approved by the USA FDA, but it is on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines. Unfortunately, it is not absorbed through the stomach or intestines, so ingesting it will unfortunately not provide the terapeutic that you are hoping for.
This medication is thought to have inhibitory actions on reverse transcriptase; something that is found in certain viruses, such as HIV or… a certain 2019 virus that is currently circulating. However, this medication is only effective if given intravenously via needle. It lasts a long time in the body once injected and carries minimal side effects ranging from nausea, tingling sensations, skin rashes, to cloudy urine. Unfortunately, it may exacerbate kidney injuries or disease.
What does the science say?
There are thousands of publications that investigate suramin as a medication for cancer, viruses, toxins, and other ailments outside of its current intended use against river blindness and African sleeping sickness. Suramin is highly bindable to albumin, which can make it a bit of an iffy drug when it comes to proper dosagings.
As Suramin is not found in pine needles, nor is it bioavailable through ingesting, it is unfortunately not the antidote that people are suggesting.
Source Material
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7038244/
https://patents.google.com/patent/US1218654A/en
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32513797/
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-asd?utm_source=rss_readersutm_medium=rssutm_campaign=rss_full