Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae or Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damage may result in a lack of ability to feel pain, which can lead to the loss of parts of a person's extremities from repeated injuries or infection through unnoticed wounds. An infected person may also experience muscle weakness and poor eyesight. Leprosy symptoms may begin within one year, but for some people symptoms may take 20 years or more to occur.
A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy.
Lepra (Leprosy Relief Association) is a UK-based international charity established in 1924, working to diagnose, treat, and rehabilitate people with leprosy. Lepra currently works in India, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe.
Achariaceae is a family of flowering plants consisting of 31 genera and about 155 species of tropical herbs, shrubs, and trees. The APG IV system has greatly expanded the scope of the family by including many genera previously classified in Flacourtiaceae. Molecular data strongly support the inclusion of this family in the order Malpighiales.
Sir Leonard Rogers was a founder member of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and its President from 1933 to 1935.
Jasminum grandiflorum, also known variously as the Spanish jasmine, Royal jasmine, Catalan jasmine, Sicilian jasmine, is a species of jasmine native to South Asia, the Arabian peninsula, East and Northeast Africa and the Yunnan and Sichuan regions of China. The species is widely cultivated and is reportedly naturalized in Guinea, the Maldive Islands, Mauritius, Réunion, Java, the Cook Islands, Chiapas, Central America, and the Caribbean. It is closely related to, and sometimes treated as merely a form of, Jasminum officinale.
Hydnocarpus kurzii is a species of plant in the family Achariaceae. It is found in India and Myanmar. It is used as a traditional medicinal plant.
Crocodile oil is extracted from the fatty tissues of crocodiles. Crocodile fat is a product of commercial farming, evident in Thailand. Historically, for centuries crocodile oil has been used by traditional practitioners across the globe, including Chinese traditional medicine, Southeast Asia, Ancient Egypt. Crocodile oil has been used since the nineteenth century for different purposes in different cultures. Due to the oil's components, its richness in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, it is sold as ointment for treatment of skin conditions, skin structure enhancement, collagen deposition, and medicine for illnesses. In recent times, the use of crocodile oil has invited criticism from the use of crocodile oil as there is an increased demand for cruelty-free and vegan-friendly beauty products in consumers of today's society.
Frederic John Mouat was a British surgeon, chemist and prison reformer. He was part of the committee that helped identify the Andaman Islands as a suitable location for a convict settlement. He examined the use of chaulmoogra oil in the treatment of leprosy and published the first illustrated book on human anatomy in Urdu in 1849. He was also involved in the founding of Presidency College, Calcutta.
Kensuke Mitsuda was a Japanese leprologist and director of the Tama Zenshoen Sanatorium (1914–1931) and the National Sanatorium Nagashima Aiseien (1931–1957). He had been at the frontier of leprosy policy of Japan. He was given the Order of Cultural Merits (1951) and Damien-Dutton Award (1961). He has been the cause of admiration from one side, and the target of criticism from the other.
Heibei Okamura (1852–1934) produced "Okamura's" chaulmoogra oil,, between about 1892 and 1944 at Sakai, Osaka, Japan. Chaulmoogra oil, which is taken from capsular fruits of Hydnocarpus genus trees of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, had been the only one remedy in wide use before Guy Henry Faget proved the efficacy of promin in 1943 Promin started the era of sulfon chemicals and revolutionalized the treatment of leprosy. Okamura was also known for caring for more than 1,000 leprosy patients between 1888 and 1901 in his house.
Hydnocarpus wightianus or chaulmoogra is a tree in the Achariaceae family. Hydnocarpus wightiana seed oil has been widely used in traditional Indian medicine, especially in Ayurveda, and in Chinese traditional medicine for the treatment of leprosy. It entered early Western medicine in the nineteenth century before the era of sulfonamides and other antibiotics for the treatment of several skin diseases and leprosy. The oil was prescribed for leprosy as a mixture suspended in gum or as an emulsion.
Dipterocarpus turbinatus is a species of tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae native to north-eastern India and mainland Southeast Asia, and cultivated in surrounding regions. It is an important source of the wood known as keruing, and is often used in the plywood industry.
The history of leprosy was traced to its origins by an international team of 22 geneticists using comparative genomics of the worldwide distribution of Mycobacterium leprae. Monot et al. (2005) determined that leprosy originated in East Africa or the Near East and traveled with humans along their migration routes, including those of trade in goods and slaves. The four strains of M. leprae are based in specific geographic regions where each predominantly occurs:
Alice Augusta Ball was an American chemist who developed the "Ball Method" for making ethyl ester derivatives of chaulmoogra oil, which were used as a treatment for leprosy during the early 20th century. She was the first woman and first African American to receive a master's degree from the University of Hawaiʻi and was also the university's first female and African-American chemistry professor. She died at the age of 24 and her contributions to science were not recognized until many years after her death.
Isaac Santra was an Indian physician, gandhian and social worker, known for his contributions for the eradication of Leprosy from India. The Government of India honoured him in 1956, with the award of Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award for his services to the nation.
Isabella Kerr was a Scottish medical missionary who worked in India in the early 20th-century. She created the Victoria Leprosy Centre in Hyderabad. She worked to cure leprosy in India.
Ernest Muir FRCS, CIE, CMG was a Scottish medical missionary and educator in British-controlled India and Nigeria most noted for his work with Hansen's disease (leprosy).
Chaulmoogric acid is a fatty acid found chaulmoogra oil, the oil from the seeds of Hydnocarpus wightianus. It is an unusual fatty acid which has a cyclopentene ring at its terminus instead of being entirely linear like most fatty acids.
Eliodoro Donato Mercado (1866–1933), or Eliodoro Mercado y Donato, was a Filipino physician and army surgeon. Along with Victor Heiser, he developed a method of injecting chaulmoogra oil to treat leprosy. His work, titled Leprosy in the Philippines and its Treatment, was published in 1914. He was regarded as the "greatest leprologist of the Philippines," according to Zoilo M. Galang.
