SQU team creates sore throat remedy from pomegranate peels, tropical plants

Oman Tuesday 19/June/2018 22:10 PM
By: Times News Service
SQU team creates sore throat remedy from pomegranate peels, tropical plants

Muscat: Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) has patented a new treatment formula for combating sore throat infections, using the peel of the pomegranate fruit.
The treatment was invented by Dr. Sidgi Syed Anwar Abdo Hasson, Prof. Ali Abdullah Hassan Al-Jabri and Khazina Mohammed Masoud Al Harthy from the University’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the College of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Anti-microbial
SQU’s invention is an anti-microbial formula composition that consists of tropical plants and the extract from pomegranate peels. It can also be used to sterilise wounds, skin ulcers, necrosis, and burns. Additionally, it can also serve as an oral disinfectant agent in the form of a chewing gum, and in other forms for domestic daily use. The patent was originally filed in 2017 and was granted by the Virginia-based United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The invention, which is still in the clinical phase, uses a specially made therapeutic tropical plant composition to treat chronic pharyngitis, which is also known as “lingering sore throat”.
Years of work
Commenting on their work, the inventors said that it took several years of continuous work involving a wide range of scientific research disciplines to look for a novel treatment for the inflammation of the pharyngeal mucosal tissue, leading to swallowing difficulties, throat irritation such as itching, dryness, or pain in the throat, dry cough, and nausea.
Chronic pharyngitis is the persistent inflammation of the back part of the throat, or pharynx. A variety of factors can cause lingering sore throats such as changes in the climate or geographical environment, temperature, humidity, poor air quality, as well as alcohol and tobacco consumption, among other reasons.
Traditionally, clinicians have mainly used antibiotics and/or anti-inflammatory medications to control microbial infections and inflammation associated with lingering sore throats. These drugs typically have an unpleasant taste, are prematurely discontinued by patients, and lead to other complications. For that reason, a therapeutic method for treating chronic pharyngitis has long been sought by researchers around the world.