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From: colonel@ellie.UUCP (Col. G. L. Sicherman)
Newsgroups: net.consumers,net.bio,net.games.chess,net.med
Subject: Japanese super pill: a surmise
Message-ID: <1070@ellie.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-May-86 12:30:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: ellie.1070
Posted: Wed May 14 12:30:05 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 17-May-86 04:16:38 EDT
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A local TV station has been advertising a "Japanese super pill" for
losing weight.  The trade name is "Amitol Plus," and the spiel is
typically misleading.  It puzzled me when the pitchman stated that
the Japanese have been using it for centuries.  But I think I've
got the explanation:

To judge from the claim and from the name, Amitol-Plus is probably
alpha-amylase, or diastase, a powerful starch digestant.  If I remember
right, the stuff is used in the manufacture of sake, or rice wine--
hence the claim!  I believe it's also sold by Parke, Davis as "Taka-
Diastase."

By the way, I've also heard the word "takadiastase" used generically.
What's the distinction, if any, between "diastase" and "takadiastase?"

I've also heard that it can be extracted from malaria germs!  Can
such things be?

(My first encounter with the word "takadiastase" was in Chernev and
Reinfeld's _Fireside Book of Chess!_ A couple of doctors used the
word in a memory test for the American grandmaster H. N. Pillsbury.)
-- 
Col. G. L. Sicherman
UU: ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel
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