MODUCARE® - a Brief History and Mode of Action
Moducare® is a mixture of sitosterol* (BSS) and its glucoside sitosterolin (BSSG) in a 100:1 ratio. This formulation was originally marketed in 1974 in Germany, after its beneficial effect in the treatment of benign prostate hypertrophy (BPH) had been established. Two years later, the same BSS/BSSG mixture was marketed in a product for rheumatoid arthritis.
In 1989, Professor Patrick Bouic and his colleagues at the Medical School of the University of Stellenbosch, Capetown, South Africa discovered that both sitosterol and sitosterolin have an immune modulating effect. Their findings, which were published in the International Journal of Immunopharmacology 1996, 18, 693-700, eventually resulted in the patented product called Moducare®.
Moducare® taken orally at 3 capsules per day (each capsule contains 20.2 mg sterols/sterolins) restores weakened or reduced T cell activity in a balanced proportion of TH1 and TH2 cells. This enables the immune system to effectively counteract viral diseases (common cold, hepatitis, HIV, etc.) and various microbial diseases (tuberculosis, etc.). Moducare® also corrects a variety of autoimmune conditions (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis) usually arising from an excess secretion of inflammatory factors. However, Moducare® is not a drug: it does not interfere with any metabolic processes of either the patient or an infecting agent but it is rather a catalyst or messenger initiating a correction of existing immune system imbalances or maintaining adequate existing balances. It thereby helps an individual to maintain good health or fight a disease effectively. The use of Moducare® is ideal in conjunction with drug treatments that tend to disturb the TH1:TH2 balance or where a disease results in a TH1:TH2 imbalance which a drug cannot correct.
*sitosterol: This compound is usually described in the literature as ß-sitosterol or beta-sitosterol. The chemical name is often shortened to "sterol".
Dr. Karl H. Pegel, CChem, FRSC
Associate Professor (Retired), School of Pure and Applied Chemistry
University of Natal, Durban, South Africa
October 2002
