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| What is one to make of a researcher who has printed up cards to promote his study? Dr. Roger Short from The University of Melbourne had laminated cards that said LemonAIDS (see photo above) with an AIDS organization's Web site address on the back. A jovial man with a sense of humor, Dr. Short has been studying the use of lemons as a microbicide for years now. He has presented his findings at AIDS conferences before.
Lemon and lime juice, he says, have been used intravaginally as effective contraceptives for several centuries in Southeast Asia. He is currently measuring the ability of lemon juice to inactivate HIV in the ejaculates of HIV-positive men. After studying different solutions of lemon juice, he found that a 20% solution (pH 2.9), after only two minutes of exposure, reduced viral loads by 90%. As you can imagine, however, putting anything acidic on your private parts can be irritating, so how can this be helpful? Dr. Short thinks that this may be a way for people with little resources to prevent HIV. He theorizes that the microbicidal properties of lemon juice are probably due to the low pH produced by citric acid.
The next step? Put lemon juice to the test in clinical trials. If these trials confirm that intravaginal lemon juice is acceptable, safe and effective, Dr. Short says it could prove to be Nature's own microbicide. He does warn readers not to even think this has been proven yet. It has not.
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