75 EU & Australia Open Door to Asylum Seekers

EU & Australia Open Door to Asylum Seekers

(1) End-of-Life care eats up 12% of the health budget - yet we have no say in How to Die
(2) Rudd overturns Howard policy of processing all asylum-seekers off-shore
(3) EU plans Europe-wide scheme for refugee resettlement 
(4) Australian Employers bringing in migrants instead of employing locals
(5) Sydney's population to grow by a million due to Immigration program (2008)
(6) Time for a reality check on immigration policy
(7) Mexico and Argentina move towards decriminalising drugs for personal consumption
(8) Hot Chili - a medicine for Diabetes and Heart disease
(9) Bitter Melon also a medicine for Diabetes

(1) End-of-Life care eats up 12% of the health budget - yet we have no say in How to Die

From: hhall1999@comcast.net Date: 01.09.2009 01:32 PM

At the end of our long and increasingly longer lives, when we are terminally ill and in the last months of life, we must accept our bodies' decline, face our own mortality, gather our families and say goodbye. Say no to feeding tubes, ventilators, resuscitators, the isolation of ICU.

Add  dialysis on to this, this is the newest thing for going on 80 crowd. Yes, blame the doctors and the hospitals!!!! It's completely unethical, but a real moneymaker.

I was given a form myself the other day at the VA which asked if I would want feeding tubes, breathing machines, dialysis.

(2) Rudd overturns Howard policy of processing all asylum-seekers off-shore

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26019535-601,00.html

No visas, boys? Welcome to Australia

Paige Taylor | September 03, 2009
Article from:  The Australian

THE Rudd government last night moved to overturn John Howard's controversial policy of processing all asylum-seekers off-shore, allowing a group of detained Afghan youths to leave Christmas Island and arrive on mainland Australia without visas.

In an unprecedented move that coincided with the arrival of yet another boat of asylum-seekers at the Indian Ocean territory last night, the 10 boys boarded a chartered Qantas jet carrying 56 newly recognised Afghan refugees from the island to Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne.

The move, confirmed by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship last night, was welcomed by the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre as a "substantial departure from the previous policy of condemning everyone including children to detention on Christmas Island".

The flight departed Christmas Island, which was excised from Australia's migration zone in 2003 by the Howard government, just hours before a further 52 asylum-seekers and three crew landed on the island after being intercepted by HMAS Ararat near Ashmore Reef on Saturday.

There are now 665 people in immigration detention on Christmas Island; 571 of them are single men being kept at the Howard government's $400 million immigration detention centre on the island's northwest point; 62 are living in a converted construction workers' compound; and 32 are in houses on the island in what is termed "community detention".

The 10 boys allowed to leave the island yesterday arrived at the island on May 7 without their parents or guardians. They will now live at a department-owned hostel called Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation, which is usually reserved for people who have just arrived from Christmas Island after being granted protection visas.

They are the first group of asylum-seekers permitted by the federal government to come to the mainland from Christmas Island for processing. The decision comes just two months after the department moved a depressed Kurdish man off the island and into community detention in Melbourne on compassionate grounds.

An Immigration Department spokesman said the decision to allow the boys to travel to the mainland with their paid carers would give them access to a range of classes and recreational activities.

"This move will enable the department to finalise their cases and ensure support to this particularly vulnerable group," the spokesman said.

"The government considers this is a measured approach that strikes the right balance between applying a strong border protection regime while also ensuring the welfare of children is of primary consideration."

The department refused to acknowledge that the move signalled a policy shift, saying decisions about who was allowed to come to the mainland before their claims were assessed would continue to be made on a case-by-case basis.

There are now 67 asylum-seeker children being taught by five specialist teachers at the Christmas Island District High School, or in classrooms not on the school grounds.

One classroom for older male students was established in April following complaints that the boys were too old to be taught in a cluster of classrooms for children in Years 3 and 4.  ...

(3) EU plans Europe-wide scheme for refugee resettlement 

http://www.hiiraan.com/news2_rss/2009/Aug/eu_eyes_europe_wide_scheme_for_refugee_resettlement.aspx

EU eyes Europe-wide scheme for refugee resettlement 

DOSE

Sunday 30, August 2009.

BRUSSELS - The EU this week unveils plans to boost and coordinate Europe's response to the waves of immigrants from Africa and the Middle East, seeking to polish its own international image at the same time.

On Wednesday, the European Commission will get the ball rolling with a recommendation for a "joint EU resettlement programme" under which nations would take in more refugees from poor and war-hit third countries.

This scheme, though voluntary, is aimed at cutting the numbers seeking to reach Europe's shores aboard rickety boats or via unscrupulous people traffickers.

The EU's executive arm is also trying to ease the pressure on countries such as Malta, Italy and Spain which are in the frontline of the influx and feel that other member states are not sharing enough of the burden.

Then in October, the commission will publish proposals for harmonizing asylum and family reunion criteria through Europe.

While the European Union is keen to do its best to help refugee-laden countries plus the immigrants themselves, there is also a feeling that at the moment the bloc has an image problem.

"The current relatively low level of involvement of the EU in the resettlement of refugees impacts negatively on the ambition of the EU to play a prominent role in global humanitarian affairs and hence on the influence of the EU in international fora," the commission said in the resettlement proposals.

According to UNHCR figures, last year EU nations resettled 6.7 per cent of the 65,596 refugees who found new homes worldwide.

"Some countries can say 'you are not doing sufficiently as a bloc' and the figures certainly suggest that perhaps more can be done," admitted commission spokesman Dennis Abbott.

A senior Vatican official recently deplored indifference to migrants after 73 Eritreans were reported to have died from hunger and thirst trying to reach Europe from North Africa.

Under the plans a new body, the European Asylum Support Office, will annually identify priority groups which need refuge, for example Iraqi refugees in Syria or Jordan, Somali refugees in Kenya or Sudanese refugees from Chad.

Then EU nations agreeing to take such asylum-seekers would receive help from an enlarged European Refugee Fund.

"Cooperation on practical and logistical aspects will lead to more financial and quality effectiveness" - including medical and security screening, the commission asserts.

Rome and Valletta decry the lack of European solidarity on the issue.

"Italy is the outpost but immigration is a European problem," Italian Justice Minister Angelino Alfano has stressed.

To help, the commission is also seeking support this month for a burden-sharing pilot project focused on Malta.

France recently accepted almost 100 asylum seekers from Malta, a move seen as a blueprint for the wider efforts.

The commission is also keen to broadcast that almost all the costs for those efforts were paid for with community funds. It hopes to win offers for up to 2,000 more places from other EU nations.

"If we can get the system up and running that will really ease some of the pressure" on front-line nations, said Tobias Billstrom, immigration minister of Sweden, which holds the EU's rotating presidency.

However he told AFP that attention must also be given to the root of the problem, in the countries of departure, to ensure that sought-after streamlined operations in Europe don't simply make it a more attractive destination.

"We always need to focus on not creating a pull factor," he stressed.

"We must not give the impression that such burden-sharing signifies a more lax attitude from the reception countries," echoed his French counterpart Eric Besson.

The plan to harmonize asylum criteria is part of this effort so that Europe is receiving "those who really need international protection," assures EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot.

(4) Australian Employers bringing in migrants instead of employing locals

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/workforce-ripe-for-the-picking-20090830-f3vg.html

Workforce ripe for the picking

Date: August 31 2009

John Sutton

Immigration policy is putting employers' needs before the nation's, with dire repercussions for local job-seekers.

WE ALL recall the Howard government's infamous stand on immigration during the height of the refugee debate: that ''we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come''. Ironically, the Rudd Government has been quietly implementing dramatic changes to our immigration arrangements that would justify a new catchphrase along the lines of ''Australia's employers will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come''.

Immigration department officials recently confirmed that in 2008-09 seven out of every 10 new skilled migrants were selected by employers. More than 101,000 skilled workers and their dependants were granted 457 visas in the main employer-sponsored temporary skilled visa program.

In addition, nearly 39,000 people were granted visas in the main employer-sponsored permanent residency (PR) visa programs, the Employer Nomination Scheme and the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme.

This employer dominance in the skilled migration program is not a temporary aberration. It is set to continue. Last December the Immigration Minister, Senator Chris Evans, announced changes to skilled immigration in response to the global financial crisis. Top priority in skilled migration went to employer-sponsored temporary skilled workers and PRs.

The Government has become fond of describing its decision to put employers in the driver's seat of Australia's immigration intake as ''an uncapped, demand-driven approach to migration''.

The Howard government started this approach of handing over sovereign control of Australia's immigration program to employers. It did this by expanding the use of temporary overseas work visas so much that their numbers became larger than the permanent skilled migration program.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's continuation of this line is troubling. He seems to have swallowed the Howard-era rhetoric justifying the outsourcing of skilled migration decisions to individual employers, particularly the claim that employers know best what workers the nation needs, and that government should not be ''second-guessing'' employers' decisions.

But the Government appears blind to the serious problems with this approach. Skilled immigration decisions should be made in the national interest, which often means taking a longer-term view. Individual employers are not focused on the national interest. They are driven by short-term profit considerations and their decisions on immigration, as on everything else, are shaped by their immediate self-interest.

It is this same self-interest that has motivated many Australian employers to cut their costs by refusing to train young Australians - and why wouldn't they if the Government will reward them by allowing them to hand-pick their workforce from overseas?

The simple reality is if employers can get access to cheap, compliant foreign labour, then they will do so. That is the nature of the beast.

Compounding these problems has been the Rudd Government's approach to international students. Numbers have surged recently - there were about 400,000 studying in Australia last year - with these students having work rights during term and unlimited working hours during vacation times.

Also, overseas student graduates on 485 visas (otherwise known as the Graduate Skills Visa, which allows overseas students who have graduated from an Australian institution to stay and work for up to 18 months) have unrestricted work rights in Australia and can qualify for PR visas.

There has been huge growth in overseas students in so-called trades courses promoted by dubious private colleges. And students in these programs must complete 900 hours' work experience, further adding to competition for youth jobs.

Yet while this has been happening, the number of 15 to 24-year-old Australians in work fell by more than 100,000 in the year to June 2009.

To make matters even worse, the Government has granted 45,000 temporary visas and bridging visas with unrestricted work rights in Australia to overseas student graduates, many of whom are desperate for a PR visa and the 12 months' work experience that is essential to qualify for it.

The consequence of so many temporary overseas workers and students seeking PR visas is that employers have a compliant labour force at their disposal. It also means more competition for a shrinking number of jobs, and more risk of the undercutting of Australian wages and conditions by this desperate workforce.

Temporary work visa programs that bring in vulnerable workers from developing countries are inherently flawed and will have an increasingly serious impact on the regulation of the Australian labour market. While Senator Evans has taken some steps to address the 457 visa abuses, the Government's response to date is not proportionate to the size of the problem.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union is now seeing the inevitable consequence of this flawed policy with major scams and rorts being discovered on a regular basis.

Last week our officials raided two Sydney building sites where hundreds of Chinese temporary workers, most of whom could not speak English, had not been paid their wages for six weeks.

Among the cocktail of abuses discovered were sham subcontracting, no workers' compensation insurance coverage, no award conditions, no superannuation and rates of pay barely half what they were entitled to.

Immigration policy is failing our youth and needs to be refocused on the public interest, not the narrow interests of the powerful employer and international education lobbies.

John Sutton is the national secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).

(5) Sydney's population to grow by a million due to Immigration program (2008)

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/city-to-grow-by-a-million-people/2008/06/01/1212258647599.html

City to grow by a million people

Damien Murphy, Brian Robins and David Humphries

June 2, 2008

SYDNEY'S population will grow by nearly 1 million people by 2021 due to the Rudd Government's expansion of the immigration program - putting huge strain on the city's public transport, health, education and housing.

A leading demographer, Bob Birrell, said the immigration intake would pump up the city's population to more than 5.1 million, up from about 4.3 million now and 350,000 more than planners had expected.

His prediction comes on the eve of tomorrow's state budget, in which the beleaguered Iemma Government is expected to pour $58 billion into infrastructure over the next four years.

Dr Birrell, director of the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University, said the Rudd Government was giving too much weight to Treasury Department advice that raising the intake of skilled migrants would prevent a wages breakout and help cap inflation.

"This is adopting a one-track mind to immigration, one that fails to recognise that Sydney historically absorbs about one-third of the people who arrive in Australia," he said.

"It also fails to recognise the fact that their arrival imposes such huge stresses on existing resources that without the allocation of further funds to accommodate them, it can end of costing taxpayers and governments plenty."

In its budget last month the Rudd Government promised to increase the migration program by 37,500 places to 190,300 a year. Of the additional places, 31,000 are slated for skilled migrants, to meet the need for workers in a tight labour market driven by the resources boom in Western Australia and Queensland.

Dr Birrell said the population explosion would come despite Sydney losing up to 30,000 people a year to other states. He said that, apart from the increased intake, Sydney's population explosion would be driven by newly arrived migrant groups who tended to have higher fertility rates.

The Iemma Government's announcement at the weekend of $46 million extra for maternity wards to cope with a baby boom illustrates some of the effect on state infrastructure of an unexpected population increase.

The Treasurer, Michael Costa, said yesterday that population growth was not just a matter for NSW. "This is a national issue," he said. "As the population grows, so does the demand for more services and infrastructure.

"We'll keep working with the Federal Government to ensure that an appropriate portion of the $20 billion Infrastructure Australia budget goes to addressing issues such as urban congestion."

(6) Time for a reality check on immigration policy

Editorial, Sydney Morning Herald
September 1, 2009

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/time-for-a-reality-check-on-immigration-policy-20090831-f586.html

WHAT governments give with one hand, they may take with another. Yesterday Immigration Minister Chris Evans announced that citizenship applications by foreign-born athletes would be expedited so they could compete at international events in Australian colours. Under amendments to the Citizenship Act to be introduced in Federal Parliament next month, the residency requirement for naturalisation will be reduced from four years to two for highly talented athletes. Yet barely a fortnight ago the same minister was toughening up visa requirements for international students. Senator Evans said that online visa applications would be limited because of evidence that some migration agents had used fraudulent documents, and announced that students from India, Mauritius, Nepal, Brazil, Zimbabwe and Pakistan would be subject to more stringent interviews before visas were approved.

The new rules match those already applying to applicants from Australia's biggest foreign student market, China, and are comparable to those prescribed by other countries with large expatriate student populations, such as the United States. And, they implicitly acknowledge one of the elements in the recent troubled history of international students in Australia: that some of those who seek to come here are interested primarily in residence and work opportunities, not in obtaining a qualification. That reality has in turn been exploited by ''colleges'' offering courses of dubious worth, and by agents who collude with those colleges. So Senator Evans' acknowledgement that student-visa applications deserve close scrutiny was certainly welcome, both as a response to a particular problem and as a sign that the Rudd Government intends to restore a principled immigration policy in this country. It may be doubted, however, whether cutting corners for those who might help Australia pick up a gold medal or two is equally principled.

As The Age reported yesterday, there is considerable evidence that day-to-day management of immigration has been passing from government, which is notionally responsible for it, to employers. In the 2008-09 financial year, the number of permanent migrants, refugees and New Zealanders who arrived in Australia rose by 12.8 per cent. Yet that figure alone seriously understates the real increase, which must include 657,124 temporary migrants with the right to work, an increase of 11 per cent. Nearly half of these temporary migrants were international students.

The issue is not whether foreign students should have the right to work. The fundamental issue is whether Australia's official immigration program, which is supposedly based on the recruitment of permanent migrants who possess job skills that are in short supply, is being sidelined because of the inflow of temporary workers. It can be argued that Australia's apparent desirability as a destination for the latter group is evidence that jobs are, in fact, available. And, it has long been the experience of this country that increased migration has a direct economic benefit through increased demand. It is also the case, however, that in the past decade Australia has experienced its biggest surge in immigration since the post-Second World War boom - though in circumstances that have changed markedly since the late 1940s and 1950s. Not least because of diminishing water resources, questions of sustainability arise now that were not then at issue.

These changes are generating renewed debate on immigration, which ideologues of several kinds will seek to manipulate. Advocates of a deregulated labour market seeking to soak up and exploit the new pool of temporary workers will be pitted against radical environmentalists opposed to all growth. There will also be those who use environmentalist concerns to cloak racism. But reality lies in none of these extremes, which is why the review of Australia's immigration needs and priorities that Senator Evans has announced is essential. One thing can safely be said, however, even before the review begins: Australia's refugee intake could rise without significant social impact. Only 13,500 refugees were included in 232,598 people who arrived under the official migration program last year, and the number of refugees was tiny compared with the total number who arrived on working holiday visas or as international students with the right to work: 474,516. Whoever is heeded in the new immigration debate, those who incite fear and hatred because of the arrival of a few boats filled with asylum seekers should not be.

(7) Mexico and Argentina move towards decriminalising drugs for personal consumption
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/31/mexico-argentina-decriminalise-drugs

Mexico and Argentina move towards decriminalising drugs

In a backlash against the US 'war on drugs', Latin America turns to a more liberal policy

Rory Carroll in Caracas, Jo Tuckman in Mexico and Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro

guardian.co.uk, Monday 31 August 2009 14.07 BST

Argentina and Mexico have taken significant steps towards decriminalising drugs amid a growing Latin American backlash against the US-sponsored "war on drugs".

Argentina's supreme court has ruled it unconstitutional to punish people for using marijuana for personal consumption, an eagerly awaited judgment that gave the government the green light to push for further liberalisation.

It followed Mexico's decision to stop prosecuting people for possession of relatively small quantities of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs. Instead, they will be referred to clinics and treated as patients, not criminals.

Brazil and Ecuador are also considering partial decriminalisation as part of a regional swing away from a decades-old policy of crackdowns still favoured by Washington.

"The tide is clearly turning. The 'war on drugs' strategy has failed," Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a former Brazilian president, told the Guardian. Earlier this year, he and two former presidents of Colombia and Mexico published a landmark report calling for a new departure.

"The report of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy has certainly helped to open up the debate about more humane and efficient policies. But, most of all, the facts are speaking by themselves," said Cardoso.

Reform campaigners have long argued that criminalisation enriched drug cartels, fuelled savage turf wars, corrupted state institutions and filled prisons with addicts who presented no real threat to society.

The US used its considerable influence to keep Latin America and the UN wedded to hardline policies which kept the focus on interdictions and jail sentences for consumers as well as dealers. The "war" was first declared by the Nixon administration.

The economic and social cost, plus European moves towards liberalisation, have emboldened some Latin American states to try new approaches.

Argentina's supreme court, presented with a case about youths arrested with a few joints, ruled last week that such behaviour did not violate the constitution. "Each adult is free to make lifestyle decisions without the intervention of the state," it said.

The government, which favours decriminalisation, is expected to amend laws in light of the ruling. The court stressed, however, that it was not approving complete decriminalisation, a move that would be fiercely resisted by the Catholic church and other groups.

The previous week the government of Mexico, which has endured horrific drug-related violence, made it no longer an offence to possess 0.5g of cocaine (the equivalent of about four lines), 5g of marijuana (about four joints), 50mg of heroin and 40mg of methamphetamine.

Three years ago, Mexico backtracked on similar legislation after the initiative triggered howls of outrage in the US and predictions that Cancún and other resorts would become world centres of narcotics tourism.

Now, however, the authorities quietly say they need to free up resources and jail space for a military-led war on the drug cartels, even while publicly justifying that offensive to the Mexican public with the slogan "to stop the drugs reaching your children". They also argue corrupt police officers will be deterred from extorting money from drug users.

Washington did not protest against the announcement, which was kept deliberately low key. "They made no fanfare so as not to arouse the ire of the US," said Walter McKay, of the Mexico City-based Institute for Security and Democracy. "I predict that when the US sees its nightmare has not come true and that there is no narco-tourist boom it will come under more pressure to legalise or decriminalise."

Some US states have decriminalised the possession of small amounts of marijuana and the Obama administration has emphasised public health solutions to drug abuse, giving Latin America more breathing room, said Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch, director of the Global Drug Policy Programme. "My hope is that Latin America will be the next region, after most of Europe, where evidence and science will be the basis for policy-making."

Argentina and Mexico's moves may encourage other governments to follow suit. A new law has been mooted in Ecuador, where President Rafael Correa last year pardoned 1,500 "mules" who had been sentenced to jail. His late father was a convicted mule.

Brazil's supreme court, as well as elements in Congress and the justice ministry, favour decriminalising possession of small quantities of drugs, said Maria Lúcia Karam, a former judge who has joined the advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

She welcomed the moves towards decriminalisation but said repression remained a cornerstone of drug policy. "Unfortunately the 'war on drugs' mentality is still the dominant policy approach in Latin America. The only way to reduce violence in Mexico, Brazil or anywhere else is to legalise the production, supply and consumption of all drugs."

(8) Hot Chili - a medicine for Diabetes and Heart disease

http://www.smh.com.au/national/chilli-a-hot-prospect-as-medication-20090902-f8i2.html

Chilli a hot prospect as medication

Sydney Morning Herald

September 03 2009

Bridie Smith

CHILLI could one day replace aspirin for the prevention and treatment of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to University of Tasmania scientists who are looking at the way the spicy fruit affects the blood.

A research fellow at the university's school of life sciences, Kiran Ahuja, said the two active ingredients in chilli - capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin - have the potential to lower blood glucose and insulin levels, reduce the formation of fatty deposits in artery walls and prevent blood clots.

Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death in developed countries.

''We have tested capsaicin and that shows an effect on platelet aggregation, or the clotting of blood,'' Dr Ahuja said.

She said her research, which used chilli paste to minimise seasonal or batch variation, had not come across any side effects of chilli. In fact some studies had suggested chilli actually reduced the damage caused by aspirin.

When it came to early-stage diabetes, when the pancreas overproduced insulin in an attempt to help the body absorb glucose, Dr Ahuja's research suggested consuming chilli resulted in the body producing less insulin, while the glucose was still used efficiently.

''It may actually delay or prevent the onset of diabetes,'' she said.

But for those wondering just how much chilli to add to their stir fry, Dr Ahuja said that's still to be established.

''It depends on how hot the chilli is, as the hotter it is, the more capsaicin it has.''

Dr Ahuja, who has been working in this research area since 2003, has received $16,400 in funding from the University of Tasmania to continue the project, which will include comparing the effectiveness of chilli and aspirin on blood thinning.

She also hopes to establish what amount of chilli would have the same effect on blood clotting as a standard dose of aspirin. The work is due to be completed by late next year.

(9) Bitter Melon also a medicine for Diabetes

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080327091255.htm

A Ton Of Bitter Melon Produces Sweet Results For Diabetes

ScienceDaily (Mar. 27, 2008) — Scientists have uncovered the therapeutic properties of bitter melon, a vegetable and traditional Chinese medicine, that make it a powerful treatment for Type 2 diabetes.

Teams from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica pulped roughly a tonne of fresh bitter melon and extracted four very promising bioactive components. These four compounds all appear to activate the enzyme AMPK, a protein well known for regulating fuel metabolism and enabling glucose uptake.

"We can now understand at a molecular level why bitter melon works as a treatment for diabetes," said Professor David James, Director of the Diabetes and Obesity Program at Garvan. "By isolating the compounds we believe to be therapeutic, we can investigate how they work together in our cells."

People with Type 2 diabetes have an impaired ability to convert the sugar in their blood into energy in their muscles. This is partly because they don't produce enough insulin, and partly because their fat and muscle cells don't use insulin effectively, a phenomenon known as 'insulin resistance'.

Exercise activates AMPK in muscle, which in turn mediates the movement of glucose transporters to the cell surface, a very important step in the uptake of glucose from the circulation into tissues in the body. This is a major reason that exercise is recommended as part of the normal treatment program for someone with Type 2 diabetes.

The four compounds isolated in bitter melon perform a very similar action to that of exercise, in that they activate AMPK.

Garvan scientists involved in the project, Drs Jiming Ye and Nigel Turner, both stress that while there are well known diabetes drugs on the market that also activate AMPK, they can have side effects.

"The advantage of bitter melon is that there are no known side effects," said Dr Ye. "Practitioners of Chinese medicine have used it for hundreds of years to good effect."

Garvan has a formal collaborative arrangement with the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica. In addition to continuing to work together on the therapeutic potential of bitter melon, we will be exploring other Chinese medicines.

Professor Yang Ye, from the Shanghai Institute and a specialist in natural products chemistry, isolated the different fractions from bitter melon and identified the compounds of interest.

"Bitter melon was described as "bitter in taste, non-toxic, expelling evil heat, relieving fatigue and illuminating" in the famous Compendium of Materia Medica by Li Shizhen (1518-1593), one of the greatest physicians, pharmacologists and naturalists in China's history," said Professor Ye. "It is interesting, now that we have the technology, to analyse why it has been so effective."

"Some of the compounds we have identified are completely novel. We have elucidated the molecular structures of these compounds and will be working with our colleagues at Garvan to decipher their actions at a molecular level. We assume it's working through a novel pathway inside cells, and finding that pathway is going to be very interesting."

The results are published online March 27 in the international journal Chemistry & Biology.

Adapted from materials provided by Garvan Institute of Medical Research.