A daffodil crop grown in Powys, Wales which will be used to produce a drug to fight Alzheimer's disease is ready for harvesting, its growers have said.
Alzeim, from Talgarth near Brecon, farms daffodils for a compound called galantamine, which slows the progress of the disease.
Until now, galantamine has been extracted from snowdrops grown in Bulgaria and China.
Local supplies may persuade the NHS to pay for its use in England and Wales.
It is already available in Scotland but it has to be prescribed privately elsewhere as it is not on the National Institute for Clinical Excellence's prescription list.
The flowers are grown on the slopes of the Black Mountains after trials showed that location produced blooms with greater concentrations of galantamine than those grown in lower areas.
No comments:
Post a Comment