Patent Abstract:
fulvic acid salts , esters or derivatives thereof in pharmaceutical preparations are effective for treating inflammation , acne , exzema or bacterial or fungal or viral infections . these pharmaceutical preparations may be given either orally or topically in the form of a solution , paste , ointment , powder to humans or animals .

Detailed Description:
the active ingredient in the practice of the invention is a fulvic acid , salt , ester or derivative thereof . oxifulvic acid , having the preferred functional group analysis mentioned above , has been subjected to a number of in vitro and in vivo studies and these are described hereinafter . the effects of oxifulvic acid on the production of oxidants by human neutrophils . human neutrophils ( separated on ficoll ) were treated with oxifulvic acid ( at 12 . 5 and 25 ug / ml ) for 15 min at 37 ° c . the cells were stimulated with pma ( phorbol myristate acetate ) ( 20 ng / ml ) and superoxide production determined by measuring the superoxide - inhibitable reduction of ferricytochrome c ( 1 mm ). a significant inhibition of superoxide production was observed at both concentrations tested ( table 1 ). these experiments were performed by co - culturing the lymphocytes of two different donors in both the presence and absence of serial dilutions of the experimental agent for 7 days . oxifulvic acid caused a dose - related inhibition of cell growth ( fig1 ). the effects of oxifulvic acid on interleukin 2 ( il - 2 ) production by human lymphocytes phytohemaglutinin ( pha )- stimulated human lymphocyte cultures were treated with oxifulvic acid at 60 , 80 and 100 μg / ml for 2 days , whereafter the cells were centrifuged and the supernatant assayed for il - 2 levels , using a biotrak tm human interleukin 2 elisa system from amersham tm ( amersham international plc , buckinghamshire , england ). oxifulvic acid caused a statistically significant decrease in il - 2 production by stimulated lymphocytes at all three concentrations tested ( fig2 ). the effects of oxifulvic acid ( 4 . 5 and 9 % cream applied topically ) in 2 , 4 - dinitro - 1 - fluorobenzene ( dnfb ) sensitized mice were evaluated using 50 balb c female mice ( 6 - 7 weeks old ) according to the method described by rheins et al ( 1987 ). the mice were sensitized by application of dnfb to the shaved abdomen , divided into 5 groups and challenged on the right ear 6 days later . the inflamed ears of the mice in each group were treated topically for two days with one of the following creams i . e . control cream , oxifulvic acid 4 . 5 %, oxifulvic acid 9 %, dichlophenac sodium 1 % ( voltaren emulgel ®) and betamethasone 0 . 1 % ( betnovate ®). the thickness of the ear was measured with a clock gauge before the challenge and 24 and 48 h later . all four treatments caused a significant decrease in inflammation on both days ( fig3 ). these results were confirmed microscopically after termination of the mice and embedding the affected ears in paraffin wax . no signs of toxicity was observed during the two days of treatment with the two oxifulvic acid creams . an experiment was also carried out to study the possible variation between creams derived from oxifulvic acid batches sampled from different runs ( 98100055 and 98110067 ) as well as from different batches ( 99030086 to 99030089 ) sampled on consecutive days from the same continuous run . in this study 7 groups of 5 mice per group were used . the first group was treated with control cream whereas the other 6 groups were treated with the above - described 6 different 9 % oxifulvic acid creams . the results of this experiment are reflected in fig4 . again no sign of toxicity was observed during the two days of treatment with the six oxifulvic acid creams . similar results were obtained as in the previous experiment . oxifulvic acid , once again , caused a statistically significant inhibition of inflammation in this model . an analysis of variance ( two - way anova ) was performed on the results obtained with the different oxifulvic acid creams . for day one the p value is 0 . 131 and day two 0 . 761 . there was , therefore , no significant difference between the various samples tested . this trial was done by dr o j botha , hatfield bird and animal hospital , pretoria . ten clinical cases were entered in the trial . to qualify for this trial the following entities had to be present on the skin of the animals : wheal , erythema , pruritis and pyogenesis . lesions were classified as slight , mild or severe before treatment . no other treatment was allowed during the trial . owners were supplied with the 9 % oxifulvic acid cream and instructed to apply the cream twice a day to the affected areas . this treatment had to continue for seven days . the owners were asked to return exactly seven days after the treatment commenced and the cases were reevaluated clinically , biopsied and photographed . decreased inflammation was observed clinically as well as pathologically in all 10 cases studied as can be seen from the histopathological investigation described hereinafter . no side effects were noted in any of the cases . in most cases it was noted that resolutions of the lesions were complete and did not recur . only in one of the cases , described as a chronic and longstanding case , did the owner return after 3 days because the dog was still scratching extensively . a short - acting cortisone was then administered and the dog responded favourably . a typical example of the results obtained during this trial can be seen in fig5 . these photographs were taken before and after the treatment of a dalmation dog with lesions on the left medial humerus . before treatment ( fig5 a ) severe wheal , erythema and pyogenesis were noted while after treatment ( fig5 b ) an absence of erythema and pyogenesis and only very slight remaining wheal were noted . in addition , the biopsy lesions of the first biopsy were completely healed . 2 ( b ) histopathological investigation : skin biopsies : clinical study : topical ointment — 9 % fulvic acid cream clinical cases having lesions of allergic dermatitis and wet eczema were identified in different species of animal as shown in table 3 . biopsies of control lesions ( prior to treatment ) of approximately 3 mm were collected , fixed in formalin and followed up with biopsies as close as possible to the site of the previous biopsy following treatment . the formalin - fixed skin - biopsies were processed according to standard routine methods used for histological studies , embedded in paraffin - wax and slices of 6 μm each were prepared . all slices were coloured using the haemotoxillin and eosine staining method . the histopathological findings are shown in table 4 . the control samples were initially investigated for specific morphological lesions which were graded as indicated in table 4 . the biopsies of the treated lesions were evaluated similarly . it must be kept in mind that in each case each lesion could only be compared to its original control lesion , due to the fact that the specific ethiology and morphological changes differed in each of the cases . these results must be interpreted as being histopathological observations only . these results are presented in addition to the clinical observations of the lesions that were treated . in general , and with due regard to the abovementioned limitations , it appears as if healing was promoted and inflammation reduced in the treated lesions . the surface ( shallow ) exudative dermatitis ( acute inflammation ) did show accelerated healing in all cases . hyperplastic epidermis ( acantosis ) is a chronic condition and thus showed little change upon treatment . the degree of dermal inflammation was also reduced in all except one of the treated lesions when compared to the original untreated lesions . there were no controls or lesions that were left untreated for the same period of time as the treated lesions . spontaneous healing can thus not be excluded as a contributing factor when interpreting these results . the applicant has undertaken acute and chronic toxicity studies which served to prove the safety and very low toxicity of oxifulvic acid . acute oral and dermal toxicity studies , acute dermal and eye irritation studies , skin sensitization studies as well as subchronic oral and dermal toxicity studies , in which the oxifulvic acid solution ( 25 . 4 % concentrate ) and the oxifulvic acid cream ( formulated to contain 5 . 33 % oxifulvic acid in this particular instance ) were evaluated . the results of the investigations are summarized in tables 5 and 6 . during the sub - chronic oral and dermal toxicity studies with both substances very high doses were used . animals were dosed with 1000 mg / kg / day of the active substance in the oxifulvic acid study . the 5 . 33 % oxifulvic acid cream was applied to the skin of rats at a dose rate of 1000 mg / kg / day for a period of 90 days . no abnormal clinical signs were noticed and none of the animals died during the studies . the changes in the clinical pathology and body masses in the animals receiving the test item were relatively small . the antimicrobial properties of an oxifulvic acid solution ( 25 . 4 percent by mass of the fulvic acid ) and a 4 . 5 percent by mass oxifulvic acid cream were evaluated in vitro on a number of well known pathogens . the results obtained are presented in tables 7 and 8 . the symbol + denotes growth , and the symbol − denotes no growth . further , the efficacy of the 4 . 5 percent oxifulvic acid cream and a 25 . 4 percent by mass oxifulvic acid solution to inhibit the growth of bacteria and fungi was tested in accordance with the sabs method 730 ( in vitro ) on a few test organisms . the results obtained are set out in table 9 . from the aforegoing studies it can be seen that oxifulvic acid exhibits some measure of antimicrobial activity or bacteriostatic or fungistatic efficacy against some of the test organisms , even when formulated in a cream . the 4 . 5 percent oxifulvic acid cream was subjected to a preservative efficacy test by the microbiological division of the sabs and it was found that the cream complied with the requirements of the usp 23 ( 1995 ). viruses were grown in either vervet monkey kidney cells or a primary liver cancer cell line ( plc / prf / 5 ). stock virus suspensions were titrated to establish their titre and to prepare a viral suspension containing 100 × 50 % tissue culture infectious dose ( 100 tcid 50 )/ 200 μl . prevention of binding of viruses to the host cell : monolayers of the appropriate cell cultures in 96 - well microtitre trays were washed and starved for a minimum of 1 hr in serum - free mem . after starvation , doubling dilutions of oxifulvic acid in serum - free mem were added to each well together with 100 tcid 50 virus . the microtitre trays were incubated at 37 ° c . and examined daily , for 7 days , for cpe . wells inoculated with 100 tcid 50 viruses and no oxifulvic acid acted as positive controls . the appearance of cpe indicated that no inhibition of binding had taken place . inhibition of viral replication in the host cell : monolayers of the appropriate cell cultures in 96 - well microtitre trays were washed and starved for a minimum of 1 hr in serum - free mem . after starvation 100 tcid 50 virus was added to all wells and allowed to adsorb for 1 - 2 hrs . after adsorption , the unadsorbed viruses were washed from the wells using serum - free mem . thereafter doubling dilutions of oxifulvic acid , in serum - free mem , were added to the appropriate wells . the microtitre trays were incubated at 37 ° c . and examined daily , for 7 days , for cpe . wells inoculated with 100 tcid 50 viruses and no oxifulvic acid acted as positive controls . the appearance of cpe indicated that no inhibition of viral replication had taken place . the effects of oxifulvic acid on the binding of viruses to the host cells as well as on the replication of viruses can be seen in tables 10a and 10b . effects of oxifulvic acid on the binding of viruses to the host cells oxifulvic acid prevented the binding of the six experimental virus cultures between 1 . 87 mg / ml and 3 . 75 mg / ml whereas inhibition of viral replication was inhibited at concentrations between 0 . 469 mg / ml and 3 . 75 mg / ml . limited inhibition of viral replication was noted at a concentration as low as 0 . 103 mg / ml in the case of simian rotavirus sa 11 . iii ) inhibits a mixed lymphocyte reaction typical of a transplanted organ rejection reaction ; iv ) has in vitro activity against gram positive , gram negative , as well as fungal and viral human pathogens ; v ) inhibits a contact hypersensitivity reaction induced in dinitrofluorobenzene sensitized mice as effectively as generally used anti - inflammatory agents such as dichlophenac sodium and betamethasone ( these two agents are however associated with serious adverse side effects ); vi ) has in vivo anti - inflammatory activity against pyotraumatic dermatitis in cats and dogs ; and 1 . bergh j j , cronjé i j , dekker j , dekker t g , gerritsma m l and mienie l . 1997 . non catalytic oxidation of water - slurried coal with oxygen : identification of fulvic acids and acute toxicity . fuel , 76 ( 2 ): 149 - 154 . 2 . clark n n , chipman j k . 1995 . absorption of 3 - chloro - 4 -( dichloromethyl )- 5 - hydroxy - 2 [ 5h ] furanone ( mx ) through rat small intestine in vitro . toxicol lett , 81 ( 1 ): 33 - 38 . 3 . gramsch h . 1961 . ein beitrag zur behandelung der gastropatien . med monatsschr , 15 : 658 - 687 4 . lopez - fernandez m f , blanco - lopez m j , castineira m p , batlle j . 1992 . further evidence for recessive inheritance of von willebrand disease with abnormal binding of von willebrand factor to factor viii . am j hematol , 40 : 20 - 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