© WikipediaRhodiola Rosea
For four hours, the unlikely trio made its way up the rugged face of the Sayan Mountains in northern Mongolia - Richard P. Brown, an American psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist, Zakir Ramazanov, a distinguished Russian plant biochemist, and their Siberian guide. Under a cloudless sky of the deepest blue, they climbed quickly, the temperature falling and the oxygen growing thinner as they gained altitude. At last, after climbing more than 10,000 feet over icy streams and rugged rock faces, they crested the last ridge. "We stood and stared in amazement," remembers Brown. "Everywhere we looked, growing in the craggy mountain ravine, were the bright yellow flowers of Rhodiola rosea."
Brown began digging around for information about the little-known herb, which is also called Arctic root or golden root. When he contacted an American company that produces a rhodiola supplement, he was advised to speak with Ramazanov, who had done research on the herb in Russia, where the plant grows. "By an incredible coincidence, Ramazanov had just moved to the United States and was living only an hour away from me," says Brown.
The two men agreed to get together, and during their first meeting the Russian biochemist gave Brown a tall stack of articles and research studies, as well as a book he'd written about the herb. "I realized then that there was much more to this than I'd ever imagined," says Brown.
Comment: To clarify, the proposed "universal flu vaccine" is not, strictly speaking, a "vaccine". The latter is defined as "immunogen consisting of a suspension of weakened or dead pathogenic cells injected in order to stimulate the production of antibodies". Here, what is being injected is the antibodies themselves, which work as an effective medicine against pathogens. They fall in the realm of immunotherapy rather than disease prevention (especially since it is not clear whether these monoclonal antibodies confer long term immunity).