PLANT POWER BERRIES AND BEANS AS MEDICINE SEND EMERITUS PROFESSOR ON A WHOLE NEW MISSION

Ann Arbor News, MI
Aug 6, 2006

Sunday, August 06, 2006
BY ANNE RUETER
News Staff Reporter

At 78, Peter Kaufman has work to do. Work that excites his scientist’s
brain, tied to the boom globally in interest in the health benefits
of plants. In the last year, he has been lucky enough to see the
lessons of the laboratory intersect with real life – his own.

Kaufman has just seen exhilarating proof under his own roof that
antioxidants and other plant compounds can heal. In the last six
months his wife, Hazel, has made a remarkable comeback from advancing
Parkinson’s disease that was so severe it had sent her into hospice
care. So why wouldn’t Kaufman set out eagerly for a University
of Michigan lab each day, to probe the disease-fighting powers of
soybeans, chokeberries and even that despised Southern vine, kudzu?

The work he does now is a second career for Kaufman. He retired from
his job as a U-M biology and biomedical engineering professor in 1998,
after spending more than four decades teaching and publishing studies
of plant biology.

He was not in the mood to kick back in leisurely retirement. Instead,
he crossed from Central Campus to the vast medical center to get
on board a new venture called the Center for Complementary and
Alternative Medicine Research Center. He got involved in a study
of hawthorn’s potential benefits for heart patients, funded by the
National Institutes of Health.

Now Kaufman keeps exploring the healing powers of plants in U-M cardiac
surgeon Steven Bolling’s Cardioprotection Research Laboratory. It is
part of the U-M Integrative Medicine Program, which runs a holistic
medicine clinic and conducts research on alternative medicine
techniques.

The lab’s supervisor is Mitch Seymour, 33, a nutritional biochemist.
He likes to see Kaufman, a beaming, fast-talking emeritus professor
prone to making puns, walk in the door.

"He’s a breath of fresh air. He’s very energetic, he’s always
enthusiastic about new ideas," says Seymour. "He’s just always going
for it, in every way."

In the lab, Kaufman works closely with Ara Kirakosyan, a plant
scientist a bit more than half his age. Kirakosyan brings from
his native Armenia a similarly intense interest in plants as little
factories of beneficial chemicals. Kirakosyan calls their collaboration
"good synergy between two eras."

The two men have published about 15 scientific papers in the last
four years. With other scientists, they co-authored a new book,
"Natural Products from Plants," a technical source for chemists,
plant biologists and other scientists, people in alternative medicine
and people in the pharmaceutical industry.

To identify compounds that may prove useful against heart disease,
neurological diseases, depression, diabetes and osteoporosis, Kaufman
and Kirakosyan have studied or are about to study peanuts, mung beans,
soybeans, fava beans and a winged bean from New Guinea. And then
there are the fruits.

Whipping up a turnaround

"Blueberries," Kaufman says, respect in his voice. He’s excited about
the natural chemicals in their dark skins, rather than the tart taste
that adds zing to pancakes. Last fall, his wife fell increasingly
prey to weight loss, jerky movements, hallucinations, sleepless nights
and other severe symptoms of worsening Parkinson’s disease.

In response, Kaufman threw half a cup of blueberries into a blender
with milk, whey, ice cream and yogurt. With the daily shake, served in
a crystal glass with a straw, he tempted her to eat again – her weight
had dropped to 89 pounds. He also gave her pills with concentrated
doses of the beneficial antioxidants found in blueberries.