Last month, it seemed for a few days that Uzbek leader Islam Karimov might be knocking at death’s door. Now comes word out of Uzbekistan that researchers are developing an elixir that they hope will prolong life.
Karimov, who turned 75 in January, was rumored to have suffered a massive heart attack in March, sparking much speculation about the issue of political succession in one of the world’s most authoritarian and repressive states. The rumor proved unfounded, as Karimov eventually resurfaced in public.
The Uzbek parliament's mouthpiece, the Narodnoye Slovo newspaper, reported on April 26 that researchers at the Uzbek Academy of Sciences' Tashkent-based Yunusov Institute of Chemistry of Plant Substances are working on creating an "elixir of eternal youthfulness." The newspaper quoted the institute's "leading researcher," Larisa Mezhlumyan, as saying that a preparation called "Gerofitol" supposedly rejuvenates the human body and prolongs life. The concoction is made from plants and is currently undergoing testing, Mezhlumyan told the newspaper.
Apparently, this is not the first case of Uzbek researchers developing a life-extending potion. The private 12news.uz website reported the same day that between 2003 and 2006 another Uzbek Academy of Sciences' institute - the Sadykov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry - developed a substance called "Tortezin" from the blood of the Central Asian tortoise. "Based on animal tests it was suggested that this preparation would be able to extend the life of an ordinary man to a minimum of 100 years," 12news.uz report said.
Perhaps the Uzbek researchers' efforts to find an elixir of life will stem the rising tide of speculation about who may take over from Karimov.
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