Is it possible to make a viable Tamiflu alternative with Sweetgum? As the claim goes - the infertile seeds of Sweetgum contain a large amount of the chemical shikimic acid which is used as the precusor in the synthesis of oseltamivir (Tamiflu).

Does that mean that it might work like Tamiflu? Let's find out!

Resources:

Full In-Depth Article

YouTube Video

Timestamps:

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (01:00) - What is Sweetgum (Liquidambar spp.)
• (02:00) - Historical Context of Sweetgum medicinally
• (03:35) - Introduction of the DIY Tamiflu Myth
• 04:50 - Can we use Sweetgum as a viable DIY Tamiflu Substitute
• 05:20 - How we heard about the Myth and believed it!
• 06:50 - Details of the claim
• 07:50 - Introduction of Shikimic Acid
• 10:00 - Is Shikimic Acid the Active Ingredient in Tamiflu?
• 12:13 - Comparing Plants to Chemicals
• 13:32 - What is Tamiflu?
• 15:00 - Neuraminidase Inhibitors
• 26:45 - Is Shikimic Acid a Neuraminidase Inhibitor?
• 29:20 - What it takes to synthesize Tamiflu
• 32:00 - What does Shikimic Acid do in plants?
• 34:50 - Is there another way Shikimc Acid might be anti-viral?
• 35:30 - Spotting a bad scientific paper
• 40:00 - The Problem with Focusing on single Chemicals in Herbs
• 44:00 - History of Use with Sweetgum
• 50:49 - The one mention of the use of gum ball we found...
• 1:00:00 - What part is best to use?
• 1:01:00 - Traditionally validated use of Sweetgum
• 1:02:00 - Pillars of Evidence
• 1:04:45 - The difficulty from the Placebo effect
• 1:06:20 - Ranking different forms of evidence
• 1:08:40 - Google searching for herbal information
• 1:09:45 - The point of this podcast
• 1:12:20 - Wrap up