LAGUNDI IS TARGET OF BIG PHARMA COMPANIES

Big pharma companies are training their guns on the herbal cough preparations that had been authorized by the Department of Health for mass production. On the forefront is SOLMUX which had hired movie and TV personality VIC SOTTO to literally destroy the market for various brands based on LAGUNDI. It seems that these herbal preparations have eaten a major slice of their market and threatened their revenue bases.

Lagundi has stood the test of time. For centuries now, Filipinos nationwide have used the plant for many purposes, mostly as remedy ranging from cough and other respiratory ailments to birth control. Preparations vary from teas to poultices to powder and capsules. By just typing LAGUNDI on google or yahoo search, one will be provided with a wide array of information that will probably take weeks to digest. And if one were resourceful enough, he would even find technologies on how to process Lagundi into commercial preparations which can become a source of income.

The DOH had spent years and millions to document its efficacy and had finally approved its widespread use. It also approved several Filipino companies to commercially produce and sell these preparations. There are three major forms in the market produced by leading Filipino drug makers, namely tablets, cap-lets and liquid for children. The local market seems to have accepted Lagundi as a cough medicine judging from the brisk over the counter sales.

The popularity of Lagundi must have hurt the manufacturers and distributors of carbocisteine, the leading cough preparation. They are now on aggressive promotions campaign with the tag line of “THE ONE VERSUS DAHON” as if carboceisteine is really effective.

The high financed ad campaign of SOLMUX can hurt the gains of Lagundi and the manufacturers authorized by DOH. Ad campaigns work on the principle of oft repeated statements become accepted as truths and with the frequency by which Solmux appear on TV, lagundi may be in danger of being forgotten.

I started taking lagundi about six years ago when I had a severe cough that was not abated despite more than three weeks on Solmux. I was later given a dose of third generation antibiotics but the couch only subsided to return again after two weeks.

In my frustration, I turned to the tea prepared by the bucketful by my friend Atty Pet Melliza. Hew was freely giving out his tea to anybody interested. The tea preparation contained several herbs and barks, one of which is lagundi. In just three days the severe cough disappeared like magic.

It took almost a year before I was struck by cough again and this time, I took a 5 days dose of lagundi 600mg caplets. Again like the first experience, the cough was cured on the fourth day but I still went on for another day of lagundi dosing. The best thing during this time, I did not feel the side effect of drowsiness when taking lagundi as against Solmux.

Now here comes this Vic Sotto whose tag line is to destroy lagundi and dismiss it as JUST DAHON! This poor idiotic tv personality must be so dumb and just hungry for endorsement money that he does not know the meaning of truth in advertising. The least that he could have done was to order his assistants to do some simple research on the efficacy of lagundi before signing an endorsement contract. Had he done so, he could have refused the offer and instead turned to endorsing lagundi preparations.

I can only hope that this idiot of tv personality named Vic Sotto should wake up and stop his brand of advertising where he puts one product down to improve the image of his endorsed product. What he should have done was to only extol to high heavens the merit of Solmux without putting lagundi down.

Of course many will believe him, after all he has a track record of successful TV and movie career. But this track record should have been honorably upheld. He has no call to put down a poor man's couch remedy.

For the readers, I would like to personally encourage you to take lagundi for cough relief. I had been doing this since eary 2005 and from that time on, I have no use for Solmux and generic carbocisteine anymore!