The newspaper El Nuevo Diario (Managua, Nicaragua) published an article October 23, 2001 by Flor de Maria Palma. Titled "Carao Cures Anemia in Calves," it reports on a 3-year study by students at the International School of Agriculture and Cattle Farming in Rivas, Nicaragua. The study was aimed at determining the optimum dose for anemic calves. The study concludes that best 150 grams of carao disolved in 200cc of water, given once a week for 3 weeks, increases hemoglobin up to 130%. Furthermore, the results were confirmed by students at the School of Agriculture (ENA) in Honduras.
Following is my translation of the full article.
Flor de Maria Palma El Nuevo Diario, Managua, Nicaragua October 23, 2001
Rivas, Nicaragua
The results of an investigation begun 3 years ago by students of the International School of Agriculture and Cattle Farming of Rivas confirm once again that Carao cures anemia in calves. Therefore, the results of this investigation will be presented at the Third Expo-science of the University Guild (CNU) at the end of this month.
A dose of 150 grams of carao pulp disolved in 200 cc of water and applied once a week during 3 weeks, increases up to 130% the hemoglobin in anemic calves. This is the premise of the investigation, which establishes this product as an alternative medicine for the treatment of anemia in cattle.
"Since the investigation began 3 years ago," says Carlos Mairena, professor at EIAG, "carao has shown itself to be effective to control anemia in calves. During all this time, what we were looking for was an appropriate dosage."
Carlos Mairena is one of the pioneers in this treatment. "In the first years of the investigation we worked empirically with small dosages of carao pulp mixed with cow milk, and although we obtained satisfactory results, we experimented with different dosages. At one point we eliminated the milk as vehicle for the carao and substituted it with water, to reduce the cost of this treatment." Mairena continued, "We have now discovered that a dose of 150 grams of carao disolved in water increases the quantity of blood hemoglobin to such a degree that we now enter the final phase of this process, which consists of diffusion of the results and training of small producers in the region, based on the results of the investigation
For the head of the Department of Investigation of the School of Agriculture, Professor Martin Jimenez, the results demonstrate the interest that the EIAG has in finding solutions to the problems of small producers, since the use of carao avoids the purchase of chemical drugs for the treatment of anemia in calves, and also avoids environmental contamination. Jimenez emphasized that both the results of the carao investigation, and a separate investigation on the use of medicinal plants to treat tick infestations in cattle, were repeated several months ago by students at the School of Agriculture (ENA) in Honduras.
The purpose of the Expo-science event, which has been sponsored by the CNU for the last three years, is to promote participation and scientific investigation of affiliated universities. At the end of the event, the EIAG will present the results of three investigations. Two have to do with medicine in cattle, and a third is about the feeding of earthworms using various manures applied on various parcels of land.