Methylxanthine, Theobromine and Theophylline from coffee, tea and cocoa to treat Corona Virus Infection

ju boo lim <limjuboo2016@gmail.com>	5:40 AM (1 minute ago)
to me

Dear Dr. Lim,

Thank you for taking time to evaluate the naturally occurring chemical substances in coffee and tea which were purportedly used by the set up hospitals for the treatment  of corona virus in Wuhan district.

Amazingly Dr. Li must have struck or stumbled upon these through his own research to cure or decrease  the impact of the Co -19 Virus which the staff of the hospital had successfully used the gentle tea to contain and almost stop the transmission of the lung infection.

It is truly a wonder that unknowingly the little little everyday things that we consume have a lot of tremendous medicinal values which we are unaware of. This centuries old traditional practice of tea drinking and its health enhancements are something that can never be imagined.

I can only summarise by claiming that almost all things have been found out except that a lot have been forgotten by the passage of time and most of the great answers are just around us for the searching.

Thanks a lot and all the best.

Violet Ho 

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My reply to Ms Violet Ho below: 

Dear Violet

Your reply and comment to my reply from your original personal letter to me is nothing but fantastic

Congratulations to you. You seem to know and understand the beauty and efficacy of natural medicine

Let me add to what you have written

Yes it is very true. In fact 40 % of the modern synthetic drugs used in hospitals today are initially plant-based till scientists working in the drug companies want to copy the design of these naturally-occurring medicines in plants so that they can synthesize and patent them to mass produce to make lots of  $$$$$

So what they do is to study their molecular structure and geometry of these natural plant-based medicine already put here in this world by God.

What these scientists did was to study the composition, molecular configurations isolated from these plants using various analytical methods such as mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry, electron spins resonance spectrometry, X-ray crystallography... etc , etc, and then mimic them in the lab before manufacturing them and selling them to the doctors and hospitals as synthetic drugs

But Violet there is a difference between the original natural drug and the synthetic analogues produced in pharmaceutical factory even if the pharmaceutical chemists managed to mimic them as close as possible by synthesis.

Let me who is also qualified in chemistry and also an analytical chemist explain further the difference between the original natural medicine God gave us, and the synthetic version

The synthetic ones used in allopathic medicine is somehow always laterally inverted from the natural original version

In the technical language of organic chemistry, the original natural form is almost always laveo (left handed), whereas the synthetic version is almost always dextro (right handed).

 In other words, the synthetic version is a mirror image  of the original  

In the language of organic chemistry we call this dextro and laevo isomers or levorotatory

This mirror- image configuration makes a huge difference in the therapeutic properties between the two.

Since over the last two weeks in this chat group people has been sending us tons of claims that chloroquine, an antimalarial drug can be used to “cure”  corona virus infection

So I shall use this example since by now chloroquine is more familiar to most people in this chat group

Chloroquine is the synthetic derivative of the natural quinine  extracted from the cinchona tree. Both are antimalarial.

But there is a therapeutic difference and a catch here

Quinine has been used as a natural traditional medicine against malaria for centuries without any problem even till today.

It is so effective as an a anti-malarial natural even till  today – completely without problem such as resistant to the Plasmodium spp. (malarial parasites).

But those idiotic scientists from the drug industry wanted to make money. They (only) think they were very smart by mimicking the natural molecular configuration from laevo to the dextro rotation so that they can patent it as their own to make billions upon billions of US $$$$$

They cannot patent quinine because quinine belongs to God (a natural and original product).

 They can only mimic God’s creation by changing it from left to right like looking at an image in the mirror (laterally inverted) so that it does not belong to God anymore

So they  started to make the synthetic form of quinine called chloroquine by adding chlorine to one of its benzene rings.

At last, they can now claim their product does not belong to God anymore so they can start to patent it and make lots and lots of money

But God saw the devil plans of man to change His design to make money.

So what did God do? Since He created all life on Earth, including the mosquitoes and the Plasmodium (malarial parasites) and cause them to multiple and evolve on Earth, 

He made use of Charles Darwin discovery on biological evolution and speciation (a gift He gave to Darwin to honour Him) by changing the genomic sequence of the malarial parasites so that these MP (malarial parasites) would resist these scientists invention,  and of course the doctors smart Alex’s  ideas too – to  “cure” malaria

After all it is never the doctor’s fault.  They can only treat if a drug is invented by the pharmaceutical scientists and given to them how to use it to treat a patient.

Without their inventions and products the doctors are helpless as they depend 100 % on manufactured synthetic medicines. They don’t use any other method

Then God started to strike back.   He changed the genomic sequencing of the MP to resist chloroquinine.

Within just 20 years after marketing chloroquine instead of using natural quinine they found they cannot make any more money from the Africans who suffered the most from malaria – with a mortality of about 100 million every year in Africa alone.

This is because God blocked those scientists and those doctors  grand ideas to make money out of the Africans

He then speciated the MP to become  resistant to  choloroquine they invented

Now you can CLEARLY see who is smarter – God or those scientists, and of course the doctors too who simply listen to those pharmaceutical sales people on how to  “treat” malaria

But with quinine there is no problem till this day except they cannot afford to use quinine all the time because malaria is so rampant in all the tropical countries that if they start to use quinine they will destroy all those valuable cinchona trees forever. 

So they cannot afford this. Moreover, they cannot make money out of a natural product by patent it  

Now you can clearly see the difference between natural and synthetics drugs used by allopathic doctors and the natural ones used by herbalists and naturopathic doctors

One of the most cardinal medical ethical principles practiced in naturopathic (natural) medicine is “primum non nocere (Latin for “first do no harm”).  Thus they use natural quinine without harming the patient instead chloroquine which has now caused so much problems with  malaria.

This is only just one example and the best one to use at the moment since we have been talking about chloroquine which they claim can “cure” Covid 19.

What they did for malaria using chloroquine, they are going to repeat the same mistake on the corona virus

I could go on and on using others examples but you need to understand pharmacology and pharmaconosy to follow me as I explain

Okay, Violet I shall share what you have written  to me in person, and my reply here  so that others including doctors and scientists can understand better because I know they  do not know because they are using only one system of medicine to treat a patient

Jb lim

Origin of The Corona Virus

I just heard over BBC shortwave (61.95 kHz) radio that in Italy, the worst hit after China by the corona virus, 14 doctors have just died battling this disease

Let it be known that a virus is a virus and it is no respecter of any man, religion or creed, race or nation.

Most of the cases and deaths here in Malaysia are related to those who attended the tabligh religious gathering in Masjid Jamek in Sri Petaling.

It also strikes anyone whether a Christian pastor in Sarawak, doctors, nurses or health-care workers who work in hospitals or anyone who tries to deal with it or even comes near it.

America has been blaming China for creating this virus with D. Trump labeling it as a “Chinese virus” while China admonishes the US for exporting to China and Iran as a secret biological weapon onto their soil

But one thing is certain.

China was the first and worse affected, but SIMULTANEOSLY an American teenager was the first American on the other side of this planet who never went to China before, being the first to be stuck by this virus on the other side of the world with America now being the world third most affected after Italy

Extra-terrestrial Origin:

Does that ring a bell as to where this virus actually came from – the secret labs of China or America or was it completely OUTSIDE this planet that rained it down on Earth by comets debris, dark clouds from space or through tenuous interstellar winds?

Simultaneous Pandemics:

This is similar to the 1918 H1N1 Spanish flu that spread almost simultaneously over the entire Earth surface that killed almost 50 million at the time when there were no planes or air travels to help it spread.

Think this over these pandemics that came to pass simultaneously over an Earth’s surface of 510.1 million km² with 75 % of it covered by ocean and water?

How did these plagues befall on Earth in chorus even in ancient times when movements of humans and animals were extremely slow and very limited and human populations very small?

It is very tempting to blame it on extremely fast air travels carrying millions of passengers across continents these days.

But what about snail-slow sailing ships, camels, horses and donkeys during ancient times of travels? How did those pandemics in records spread just as fast as it is today, or even faster?

Think this over again if these events were actually extra-terrestrial  in origin rather than blaming it on birds, bees and bats living among us on Earth, and now being fickle-minded and indecisive  blaming it on China or the US for creating it?

I am asking everyone this question from the evolutionary biology and mystery of life point of view and separately from our advances  and  knowledge gained  through our  discoveries, and inroads  made  in  astronomy and astrobiology over the last 20 years

The relationship between the passage of comets and corona virus pandemic which may have been mistaken as “influenza” was first shown by Sir Fred Hoyle and Nobel Prize winner Chandra Wickramasinghe in their  panspermia theory (1).

This was also latter theorized and supported by Steven Hawing – all three were world-renown astrophysicists and scientists  working at  the University of Cambridge and at other British universities.

The corona virus contagion is now so serious that the authoritative and very influential BBC has been devoting almost (85 %) its entire news  program from 6 – 8 pm discussing this virus since December 2109

So are our local Malaysian radio and TV programs during their news hours only recently aired the same.

Lim jb  

Reference:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia

Chloroquine to Treat Corona Virus?

There has been a lot of video claims that is being circulated around lately that anti-malarial drug already showing resistance to malaria can now be used  instead  to treat deadly corona virus pandemic

This has caused death instead. Read here:

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2020/03/22/nigeria-reports-chloroquine-poisonings-after-trump-says-it-treats-covid-19/

Do NOT use any drug that has not been tested or approved and try it as a  home remedy for SARS-CoV2 (Covid19).

It takes a minimum of 10 years for any drug to be  approved after undergoing various phrases of testing from lab studies to phrase 1, 2, 3 clinical trials followed continuously by pharmacovigilance even approval and license has been given.

Granted chloroquine has already been well studied and evaluated against malaria, and has long since been licensed and marketed as an antimalarial drug.

We already know the pharmacodynamics of chloroquine on malarial parasites by its inactivation of their cytochrome P450 2D6 (CYP2D6), the dose, duration and the toxicity levels

This need not be studied again to shorten the time for chloroquine to be used.

But we have completely no data on its mechanisms on the coronavirus and the counter effects on the virus against the drug although some have postulated, but  those explanation  do not seem plausible to me from my understanding in molecular pharmacology  

This needs to be studied and evaluated first in lab studies and in multiple clinical trials before this therapeutic regimen can be safely trusted 

Even if chloroquine is effective, we do not know at what dose to give it, and the duration to be given? We have no clue

Given at under dose, it may cause the corona virus to mutate into a very virulent strain which the body immunological defense may no longer be able to handle.

Given at high dose it can be fatal. The lethal dose for chloroquine has been recorded at 4 – 5 g

Ref  : https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC1678465&blobtype=pdf

Currently our own human immune system is being challenged by this virus, and it is doing a very, very good job with many having recovered from this infection on their own

Let our own immune system endowed to us by Nature to do this job for us, and it is now doing this very effectively with very low mortality ratio, increasing recovery rates compared to over 15 times the rate of new infections.

This recovery ratios speaks volumes how Nature is currently doing its job for us.

The corona virus is already been defied by our own immune system, and in response,  the virus too is trying to fight back by its own genetic mutation into more hardier strain as evidenced by the previous milder SARS CoV to the current more defiant Covid-19 strain  

Take  chloroquine as a clear example how the Plasmodium spp (malarial parasites) mutated against this antimalarial drug. Chloroquine is no more effective against malaria as much as corona virus is going to mutate against it

But if we start to challenge it further with unapproved chloroquine or its derivatives, what happens is the virus is being attacked by both sides – our own immune system on one side -  which is already doing a very noble job for us, and the drug on the opposite side.

This is similar to the misuse of antibiotics causing antibiotics resistant superbugs to emerge

This same scenario will surface with the present Covid-19 if we challenge it with an under-dose of chloroquine. 

Just do NOT put yourself between the Devil and the deep blue sea with an agent yet to be evaluated by large-scale clinical trials before approval.

The virus can undergo speciation by Natural Selection very rapidly due to it very simple genomic chain (< 3,000 base) and they can turn very, very nasty after that after being  confronted on both sides – one by our own immunological system and the other some drugs for which we have no understanding   its mode of action

We can see this very clearly with SARS CoV that changed into Covid-19 after apparently lying very low for 16 years after being challenged by our collective human immunological defenses passed on from person-to-person by immune memory cells

If we have studied and understand evolutionary biology or evolutionary medicine we see how life evolved so rapidly during the Cambrian Radiation soon after the first RNA chemistry came into place followed by very rapid changes in the mutation of DNA in the bacteria into higher species due to very rapid environmental challenges 3,000 million years ago

Respect that observation.  It is purposely premeditated there by the Designer.

Respect Him (God) , and  the virus He created, and  do not try to be smarter than the Designer  by using unapproved chloroquine as some home remedy to challenge a highly potential genetic mutation

We have already leant our lesson using all kinds of antibiotics to fight bacterial infections causing the bacteria to mutate into superbugs for which increasing generations of new anti-bacteria has no effect

Ignore Trump.  He is fickle-minded and keeps changing his words. He is a politician without any direction, let alone any clue about evolutionary biology, virology, medicine or medical sciences  

Trust me with my down-to-earth layman explanation reachable to all.

Hope this helps

Lim jb

Steam Inhalation to kill Corona Viruses

There has been some debate among the Minister of Health Malaysia, the Director-General of Health and former Deputy of Health Malaysia, other doctors and members of the public as well, whether drinking warm water recommended by the current Minister of Health helps kill the corona virus?

Read here their quarrels :

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/03/21/asked-if-warm-water-kills-covid-19-health-d-g-says-only-subscribes-to-evide/1848795

Let me now join in this interesting  debate as a former  senior  medical researcher and multi-disciplinary  scientist

There is scientific truth that viruses cannot withstand high temperature.  I shall explain.   

This is one of the reasons why the body response with a fever when infected by Covid19 or any viral or bacterial infections

This immunological response designed by the body of generating a high temperature (fever) is gospel truth and nobody can deny this

However, I do doubt if the warm water temperature is high enough (at least 75 degrees C), or can be drunk or maintained long enough (at least for 20 minutes) to inactivate the viral RNA and its outer protein envelop?

At such high temperatures of 75 degrees C it will instantly scald the throat, let alone maintain it for 20 minutes. Throat reflex will instantly throw out the hot water

Furthermore Covid19 is primarily a respiratory tract and not esophageal- gastro tract infection.  These are two separate anatomical systems.

Any water drunk can only enter the stomach, and not into the windpipe

How then could any water hot or cold enter from the throat into the windpipe, airways and into lungs instead of into the esophagus  when it is blocked by the epiglottis in the throat when food is eaten, water drunk?

The reason given by the Minister of Health is correct in that viruses are intolerant to high temperatures and I concur with him. 

But there is a catch here:

Frigid of Space where Viruses Lurk in Suspended Animation:

We scientists trained and qualified in astrobiology and astronomy knows that there are untold quantities of pre-life molecules, biomolecules, viruses lurking out there in space in the interstellar clouds that literally remain there for hundreds of thousands of years in the frigid and darkness of space

They can withstand horrendously long journeys lasting thousands of light years in suspected animation because they are not activated yet into life in a  frigid and dark environment of interstellar space  where the temperature is  only a little above 3 Kelvin (3 degrees above absolute zero)

This is the temperature as CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background), the remnant temperature from the Big Bang when the Universe was first created along with pre-life such as RNA molecules and viruses  soon after the Big Bang. The searing temperatures from the Big Bang then dropped to almost absolute zero soon after

Pre-life molecules like RNA are synthesized soon after

That how the viruses are kept in suspended animation at such low temperatures where all molecular movements including viral RNA freezes to almost zero and remain motionless  for thousands of millions of years without needing any living host, oxygen, nutrients, or any life-sustaining molecules etc. simply because all molecular motions and movements  is zero or almost zero

Now after this astrobiological explanation from me, we now know why viruses cannot tolerate high temperatures in Earth’s hot environment or in the fever of an infected person as they are used to almost absolute zero Kelvin found  in deep, deep space for thousands of millions of years from where they originate

Having explained that, let now go back to what the Minister of Health recommended

The Minister of Health advice is to drink warm water to kill the corona virus

I do not agree with him that drinking warm (not hot) water can inactivate the corona virus in the respiratory tract.

However I would like to use his idea to work it  in another way.

Alternative Therapeutic Modality: Based on Space Science: 

Since corona viruses, and for that matter all viruses like cold environment, and are heat labile, let me use this scientific truth to recommend   all suspected corona viral infected patients to inhale HOT steam for at least 20 – 30 minutes.

Repeat this procedure as many times as they can inhale except take care not to flood the bronchioles and lungs with condensed stream, or they may be drowned by the condensed steam – caution.  Aspirate excess water in the airways using postural drainage often.  This is physiotherapy that does not require harmful and unnecessary drugs  

Anti-viral Oil:

If they like, enhance that anti-viral steam-inhaling therapy with anti-viral essential oils such as from star anise, camphor, eucalyptus oils, and  all oils rich in powerful anti-virals phenylpropanoids and sesquiterpenes.

Add about 5 mls. of these anti-viral essential aromatic oils into the boiling water, and inhale the steam

Steam together with all these anti-viral aromatic oils will enter into the respiratory tract and fight the virus. Steam can NEVER into the stomach

Mechanisms of Hot Steam on Airways:


The action of  steam inhalation is not just that alone. Warm steam when inhaled will trigger off the following mechanisms

1.       Liquidize any thick mucus (mucins which are heavily glycosylated proteins) trap in bronchus and bronchioles along with the virus for easy expectorant effect and expulsion from the airways.  Retinol from cod liver oil accelerates the airways ciliary sweep as the primary mechanism for mucus clearance along with the trapped viruses.

2.       Warmth is not a conducive environment for viruses. They die very easily in hot and warm surroundings since they are pre-life RNA particles that “thrive” under the frigid cosmic background temperature of nearly minus 273 degrees C (3 Kelvin) where they remain in suspended animation for at least 4 billon years in torridly-chilly inter-stellar space before arriving on Earth.

At that temperature near 0 K (−273.15 °C; −459.67 °F), nearly all molecular motion ceases where mathematically ΔS = 0 for any adiabatic process, and where S is the entropy according to the laws of thermodynamics of near absolute zero.

3.       The heat of the steam above body temperature (37 ⁰ C) will cause bronchial dilation and angio-vascular dilation and  vascular injection over the area bringing in immune bodies such as  cytotoxic  T cells seeking for any kind of viral infections via their toxic mediators.

Cytotoxic T cells have specialized proteins called T cell receptors (TCRs)  tagged on their surfaces  that help them to recognize virally-infected cells.

Each cytotoxic T cell has a TCR that can specifically recognize a particular antigenic peptide bound to an MHC molecule.

If the T cell receptor detects a peptide from a virus (example corona viruses), it alerts its T cell of a pathogenic invasion.

The T cell then releases cytotoxic factors to destroy the plague-ridden cell and, consequently prevent the survival of the invading virus

This is natural medicine (naturopathic medicine), a field among others, I am also well-trained and also well- qualified. These quarrelling  doctors can learn quietly from me.  

That will INSTANTLY SOLVE all the quarrels among the top experts on health and medicine.

I hope they, all including all specialists doctors too will read my explanation and suggestion

Hope this helps to settle their disputes

Lim ju boo

BSc PG Dip MSc MD PhD FRSPH FRSM

Postdoctoral CE in:

Astronomy / Astrobiology (University of  Oxford)

Evolution and Mystery of Life (University of Cambridge)

Forensic Science (Toxicology) (Cambridge)

War of The Worlds : Corona viruses or The Human Race?

Dear all in this WhatsApp Chat and Other Readers 

I would like to ask a question about this corona virus invasion on Earth.

The question is down below.

But before that, let me give you some information to mull  about the size and numbers of this virus:

The size of viruses can range from about 20 to 400 nanometres in diameter (1 nanometre = 10^-9 meters).

The corona viruses have a genome size of approximately 27 to 34 kilobases which is the largest among known RNA viruses (1).  

The estimated size of Covid19 is about 300 nanometer or 3 x 10 -7 meters (0.0,000,003 metres) based on an estimated calculation I made

(The smallest bacteria are about 400 nanometres in size)

The Radius of Earth is 6.371 million metres

Hence surface area of Earth is A = 4πr2 = 5.1 x 10^14 square metres (510.1 trillion m²).

Suppose we now  assume the present Covid19 began to invade the entire surface of Earth either by:

1.       By human-to human transmission as most virologists believe, or  

2.       By seeding from comet’s debris coming from the Oort’s Cloud beyond the Solar System between 0.03 to 3.2 light-years away from the Sun as proposed by Sir Fred Hoyle and Nobel Prize Laureate Chandra Wickramasinghe (born 1939) who showed the correlation between the passage of comets near the vicinity of Earth and influenza pandemic on Earth.

This was also theorized by Steven Hawking.  All 3 of them were world-renown scientists from the University of Cambridge.

They contended that life forms continue to enter the Earth's atmosphere, and may be responsible for epidemic outbreaks, new diseases, and the genetic novelty necessary for macroevolution in an Origins Symposium presentation on April 7, 2009 (2).

In such a scenario we can expect the entire Earth surface will be peppered by:

5.1 x 10^14 / 3 x 10 -7 meters = 1.7 x 10^21 (17 followed by 20 zeros) corona viruses

The reference human body has a surface area of about 1.9 m^2

This means there will be a minimum of 1.9 / 3 x 10-7 = 6 million viruses covering over the outer part of  our body alone if they rained down from us  from space, rather than transmitted by human-to-human social contacts (assuming the surface area of corona viruses is about the same as its total linear size of 0.0,000,003 metres).

Translated to the world’s population of 7.8 billion (7800 million), this means if everyone is covered on the outside of his  body alone without the viruses  entering into his or her body to multiply, there will be:

4.68 x 10^16 Covid19 over the entire human body on Earth, or 2.75 X 10-3 % (0.0027 %) of what the entire Earth gets if the spread continues

Having now given you all the calculations and the info

My question now is:

Who is going to win the War of the Worlds?

1.       The human race with our preventive and advanced technology or

2.       The tiny, tiny, tiny Coronavirus invading Earth from Outer Space

Give us your thoughts. This is a question based on the Survival of the Fittest by Natural Selection as an extension of Charles Darwin’s theory on:

The Origin of the Species

(when I did my postdoctoral further education course on Evolution and the Mystery of Life at Cambridge, and later on Astronomy at Oxford, and later back again to Cambridge to complete my course in Forensic Toxicology, these were the typical type of forum questions assigned in their tens of dozens in every  course by both universities  for  us  students to answer

They just want to test our analytical and intellectual ability). 

Let’s see how we tackle this question I ask in return

Share with us your thoughts. It can be fun

Thank you 

Lim jb  

References:

1.       https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4984655/

2.       Fred Hoyle; Chandra Wickramasinghe & John Watson (1986). Viruses from Space and Related Matters. University College Cardiff Press.

Legal System in Malaysia

Dear friends in this Whatsapp Chat Group 

Our tutor Dr. Susan Gurney at the University of Cambridge has asked us students from various countries around the world to write a summary of the legal system in each of our respective country.

This is just as one of the many daily and weekly tasks  we need to undertake and submit as part of our course in forensic investigation (forensic toxicology)

This is a wake up call for me as I have no clue myself, and I am sure you too have not much clue as most of us are not in the legal profession

So I like to share my knowledge with you to wake you up also.

This is the beauty of a chat group where we can share knowledge after a research

Unfortunately a lot send rubbish and videos to us in chat groups.

So I need to neutralize them with something that is solidly academic.

Legal System in Malaysia (Part 1)

by Lim Ju Boo - Saturday, 15 February 2020, 7:15 PM

Dear Dr. Susan

You have asked me a very difficult question as I am not in the legal field, and I really do not have much idea how our legal system in Malaysia works.

But I shall try my level best using plain simple language from sources I read here and there and understand.

The legal system in my country, Malaysia is very complex

It is mainly based on the common law legal system.

But there are also state laws enacted by the State Legislative Assemblies which applies in the particular state.

The constitution of Malaysia also provides for a unique dual justice system—the secular laws (criminal and civil) and sharia (Islamic) laws even though there a controversy whether or not Malaysia is a secular or an Islamic country since it is a multiracial country for sure with many types of religion being practiced here even though the majority of the population are Muslims

The reason why the law of Malaysia is mainly based on the common law legal system was because it is the direct result of the colonization of Malaya, Sarawak, and North Borneo by Britain between the early 19th century to 1960s.

However, the supreme law of the land is the Constitution of Malaysia that sets out the major legal framework and rights of all Malaysian citizens.

The Federal laws are enacted by Parliament of Malaysia and this applies throughout the country even though it may have a dual system.

Then there are also state laws enacted by the State Legislative Assemblies which applies in the particular state

On the dual system of law in this country this is provided in Article 121(1A) of the Constitution of Malaysia.

Article 3 also provides that Islamic law is a state law matter with the exception for the Federal Territories of Malaysia.

 Islamic law refers to sharia law, and in Malaysia it is known and spelled as syariah. The court is known as the Syariah Court.

Looking at the Malaysian legal system as a whole, sharia law plays a relatively small role in defining the laws on the country. It only applies to Muslims.

With regards to civil law, the Syariah courts has jurisdiction in personal law matters, for example pertaining to marriage, inheritance, and apostasy.

In some states there are sharia criminal laws, for example there is the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code Enactment 1993.

Their jurisdiction is however limited to imposing fines for an amount not more than RM 5000 (925.33 Pound sterling) and imprisonment to not more than 3 years.

They cannot impose capital or death sentence on any criminal or murder cases such as in Alex and Linda hypothetical murder case Cambridge University gave us. 

Such cases has to be referred to the High Court, then  to the Appeal Court and finally the Federal (Supreme) Court that will have the final say by applying the Federal Constitution, the highest Constitution of the land that applies to all major criminal and murder cases

 In August 2007, the then Chief Justice of Malaysia proposed to replace the current common law application in Malaysia with sharia law, but this was turned down

I am a long retired medical researcher, not in the legal profession. So I hope I have summarized something out of my field to the best of my ability.

Thank you

--------------------------------------

Dear Dr. Susan,

Part 2

Just some further information on what I have written earlier at the 5^th week  student forum

The hierarchy of courts in this country (Malaysia) begins from the lowest court, namely the Magistrates' Court where minor offences like stealing, traffic offences, burning rubbish in public, and owners of dogs allowing them to chase and bite others are heard here.

The next higher court is the Sessions Court where cases on civil matter involving motor vehicle accidents, disputes between landlord and tenant and distress action and other matters where the amount in dispute does not exceed RM 250,000.00 are heard here.

In the Malaysian legal system, for more serious offenses such as drug and human trafficking, and murder cases that may result in a capital punishment (death sentence) they are then referred to the High Courts

If a convicted person is not happy with the sentence hand down by a High Court, he / she may appeal to the next highest court which is the Court of Appeal where the sentence of the lower court (magistrate and session courts) may be upheld or overturned

If he is still not satisfied, he / she may also have his / her case heard in the highest court that is, the Federal Court which is the apex or the Supreme Court of the land

But if any judgment by the apex court (Federal Court) is handed down, then there is no more further avenues available for him / her to appeal. Then that sentence including a death sentence is confirmed

In Malaysia currently death sentence is imposed for drug trafficking, murder, kidnapping, human smuggling, treason against the King and country, and other similar serious offences

However they are now trying to have the capital sentence (death sentence) abolished

But this has caused a tremendous outcry among some sectors of the public especially among members of families whose loved ones were murdered - quite understandable.

In fact some families publicly said that if the death sentence is abolished, and if the murderer of their family members was let off the gallows, they themselves would personally kill the murderer. They blamed government as insensitive 

So the decision whether or not to abolish the death sentence in this country is still being debated, maybe abolished only for some other offences such as for drug offences

In Malaysia we currently do not have a jury system anymore.

We had one but it was abolished in 1995

Hence if a death sentence is heard in the apex court (Federal Court), instead of a jury, 2 or 3 or even more senior judges will sit on the bench to make the decision

That sentence will be final

Thank you for your question.  It has helped me to learn something about our own legal system which I never knew before

Therapeutic and fatal doses of drugs

Below is one of the many countless student discussions posted by this author as a current student in Forensic Toxicology in during the 3^rd week into the course at the University of Cambridge

Q. What is a toxin?

A. A toxin is a poison of biological origin, normally a protein expressed by the organism

For instance, botulinum toxin is a neurotoxic protein produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum.

 Another example, is tetanus toxin, an extremely potent neurotoxin produced by Clostridium tetani  in anaerobic conditions and this toxin causes tetanus (lock jaw in humans)

Other examples are mycotoxins, for instance aflatoxin B and G expressed by the microfungi , Aspergillus flavus, that in small doses over long exposure can cause liver cancer, and in large doses in one sitting causes acute liver failure

Others are the different types of neurotoxins and haematoxins expressed by vipers and cobras. The list goes on and on.

 

Q. What are the therapeutic and fatal doses of the various poisons and drugs given in the list 

A. As far as the therapeutic and lethal doses of other poisons and drugs are concerned here are just two examples

Poison                                 Therapeutic dose                                                                             Lethal dose

Arsenic                                 Arsenic trioxide 0.15 mg/kg IV                                                    70 to 200 mg mg/kg/day

Paracetmaol                       1-2 tablets bd – tds (twice or three times a day                  10–15 g (20–30 tab)

For arsenic this is found in a few medicinal preparations

For instance, Salvarsan, an organic arsenical, was introduced in 1910 by Nobel laureate, physician and founder of chemotherapy, Paul Ehrlich. His compound, which was one of 500 organic arsenic compounds, cured syphilis.

Today, arsenic compound is still used in the treatment of trypanosomiasis. Therapeutic doses of these compounds depends on the formulation and preparation

For instances for acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), arsenic trioxide at a dose of 0.15 mg/kg body weight is given IV until bone marrow remission; not to exceed 60 days.

Other formulation such as Tretinoin is given at 22.5 mg/m²

Arsenic exerts its toxicity by inactivating up to 200 enzymes, especially those involved in cellular energy pathways and DNA synthesis and repair.

But what is more important is the long term exposure to arsenic in the soil and drinking water

WHO estimated through drinking water, more than 200 million people globally are exposed to higher than safe levels of arsenic (1). The areas most affected are Bangladesh and West Bengal (1). Exposure is also more common in people of low income and minorities (2).

 Acute poisoning is uncommon (1). The toxicity of arsenic has been described as far back as 1500 BC in the Ebers papyrus (3).

The acute minimal lethal dose of arsenic in adults is estimated to be 70 to 200 mg or 1 mg/kg/day (4)

As far as paracetamol is concerned, the therapeutic dose as an analgesic is normally 1 -2 tablets x tds. But this depends on age

An overdose of 10–15 g (20–30 tablets) of paracetamol can result in fatal hepatotoxicity (5, 6).

Patients who are malnourished, have been fasting, take enzyme inducing drugs, or regularly drink alcohol to excess are at higher risk of liver damage.

Again the fatal dose depends on a person's body weight, age and other drug interaction. For instance if a person takes 5 g of paracetamol together with alcohol, that dose probably would be the lethal dose for him, especially if he / she is a small child.

Similarly, if he already has a liver disorder, and his kidneys are already compromised with low GFR, low creatinine and urea clearance,  the lethal dose for paracetamol can be would be much lower than 20 -30 tablets in one dose.  It all depends on the patho-physiology state of an individual

The same can be said for strychnine.   A few minutes after ingestion, strychnine is excreted unchanged in the urine, and accounts for about 5% of a sublethal dose given over 6 hours (Boyd et al., (1983)

Higher doses over a longer period are fatal. Again this depends on the body weight

I think it is very difficult to give any strict and specific values for all these drugs / poisons especially the lethal doses because it is not possible for us to carry studies on lethal doses using human subjects.

Most of toxicological studies are done using animal models, and their lethal dosage per kg of body weight are then extrapolated into humans

Then again, the biochemistry and genetic make-up of animal models may not necessary be the same for humans. But that is the best we can do. We can’t carry out toxicological trails on humans

There are many other methods used for evaluating toxicity. One common method is to determine the LD 50 (lethal dosage of a substance that kills 50 % of a population in experimental animals),

Toxicologists can also use cell cultures and cell lines studies  in vivo exposure, skin sensitization tests, Draize test, open epicutaneous test, optimization test, split adjuvant test, guinea pig maximization test (GPMT), Buehler test, and murine local lymph node assay (LLNA)…etc. etc.

Normally we would use some of these studies such as developmental toxicology in embryotoxicity studies, genetic toxicity testing, neuro-toxicological evaluation,  two-generation reproduction toxicity studies, carcinogenicity testing, subchronic oral toxicity testing to better understand their toxico dynamics and toxicokinetics (how they act on the body). The list goes on.

Most of these we would focus on the various experimental animal models and methods used for toxicity testing. It depends what we want to evaluate

These pre-clinical toxicity testing helps the toxicologist to calculate out “No Observed Adverse Effect Level” which is needed to initiate the clinical evaluation of  products under investigation such as a novel drug to be marketed much later after 10 - 15 years from cell-lines studies on toxicity, clinical efficacy, to various phrases of clinical trials. It takes a very long time at high cost in R & D before approval by FDA can be obtained

On the issue of adverse drug reaction and toxicity, post marketing pharmaco vigilance is still observed and in place

So I cannot tell you exactly what each dose, therapeutic, fatal or otherwise would be for the various poisons and drugs given in the list because of so many confronting factors 

Some poisons like arsenic, lead and mercury are accumulative at very low doses over many years, or they can also be acute at high doses if administered in a single dose

I would like to leave this very complicated and very lengthy subject here as this is a very complicated and controversial issue

There are already too many studies and published literature on this with some studies contradicting each other.

            

References:

1. Naujokas, Marisa F.; Anderson, Beth; Ahsan, Habibul; Aposhian, H. Vasken; Graziano, Joseph H.; Thompson, Claudia; Suk, William A. (3 January 2013). "The Broad Scope of Health Effects from Chronic Arsenic Exposure: Update on a Worldwide Public Health Problem". Environmental Health Perspectives. 121 (3): 295–302.

2.  Joca, L; Sacks, JD; Moore, D; Lee, JS; Sams R, 2nd; Cowden, J (2016). "Systematic review of differential inorganic arsenic exposure in minority, low-income, and indigenous populations in the United States". Environment International. 92-93: 707–15.

3.  Howie, Frank (2013). Care and Conservation of Geological Material. Routledge. p. 135. ISBN 9781135385217. Archived from the original on 2017-09-10.

4. https://pmj.bmj.com/content/79/933/391.full

5.            Prescott LF. Paracetamol overdosage: pharmacological considerations and clinical management, Drugs, 1983, vol. 25 (pg. 290-314)

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6              BMJ Group, British National Formulary 59 March 2010, 2010LondonBMJ Group; Pharmaceutical Press

7.  Boyd RE, Brennan PT, Deng JF, Rochester DF & Spyker DA (1983). Strychnine poisoning.  Am. J. Med., 74: 507-512.