Australian invading barnacle and Alzheimer delay from daffodils

Working on the video recordings taken on Saturday, I endeavored to correctly identify the assortment of life captured therein with the aid of Barrett & Yonge's Collins Pocket Guide to the Seashore and the Handbook of British Birds. This closer retrospective look revealed some unexpected surprises.

The first was in the identification of the barnacles observed on the shell of a periwinkle. Rather than the indigenous Balanoides balanoides or Chthamalus stellatus, they appeared to be Elminius modestus. E. modestus is an antipodean invader, thought to have arrived from Australia in British waters on ships in the 1950's. Due to its greater tolerance of variations in salinity and water temperatures, as well as fecundity, the invader has spread rapidly though British waters.

The second surprise was that the birds presumed to be Knot was not Knot but Turnstone, an avian winter visitor which would be departing these shores again in May.

Video editing is still not complete as a voice-track is yet to be added.

An item on the television program Countryfile, on Daffodils,caught my attention. It may be recalled that in March, I accompanied Mrs Kabitzsch to London, who promulgated the use of edible flowers and flower dishes, recorded in my business blog article "Von Blythen, flower liqueurs, syrups and condiments to the UK" at http://miltoncontact.blogspot.com/2011/04/von-blythen-flower-liqueurs-syrups-and.html. Amongst some personal trials of edible flowers, there was also the provision of a list of plants that should definitely not be eaten. Daffodils were amongst them as they contain harmful alkaloids.

The Countryfile article reported on the cultivation of daffodils in Wales at altitude for the production of a particular alkaloid, galantamine, reportedly efficacious in the early stages of the debilitating, memory robbing disease, Alzheimers.

Galantamine was first investigated medicinally in the Soviet union in the 1950's and it was there that Mashkovsky and Kruglikova-Lvova demonstrated the cholinersterase inhibitory properties of the compound. (Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galantamine#Clinical_use).

Galantamine, also known as galanthamine, can be synthesised via a variety of routes, each protected by pharmaceutical companies. These routes were primarily followed because the intitial extraction from plant sources such as snowdrop and daffodils proved low yielding.

However, a Welsh company, Alzeim (http://www.alzeim.org/Default.htm), is currently developing a purification process utilising commercially grown special daffodil varieties. Growth of the plants above 1000ft (330m) above sea level apparently puts the plants under stress and increases the proportion of galantamine amongst its alkaloids.

There is a small risk of increased mortality associated with galantamine use. However, British guidelines by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, though amended recently give clear guidance and support for the use of galantamine for the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (downloadable here: http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/13419/53619/53619.pdf).