HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Dr. Ozel is a Turkish surgeon who dedicated his life to help humans suffering from various diseases. He is the inventor of Nerium oleander extracts known under the trademark Anvirzel.

Oleander extracts have immune modulating properties and are used in the treatment of cell proliferative diseases like cancer, and other diseases originating from immune deficiency.

WHO IS DR. OZEL

He was born in 1927 in Kurkcu/Mut, a small village in the southern province Icel of Turkey. He went to elementary and middle schools in his village and in Silifke. He took exams held by the government for financial aid; he attended Kayseri High School as a boarding student under government grant. He started the military medical school in 1946, and he graduated in 1952. He served in the army for five years as a military physician. From 1957 till 1961 he attended Gulhane Military Medical Academy and specialized in general surgery. In 1962 he resigned from the military, and was assigned to Mugla State Hospital. He served there as chief doctor from 1969 until 1974 when he retired and moved to Istanbul. He passed away on 6 June 2021.

NERIUM OLEANDER (N.O.) - HISTORY

Dr. Ozel started to work on N.O. in 1966 while he was working in Mugla State Hospital. He treated some terminally ill cancer patients, and presented the results at the Fourth Balkanic Medical Days symposium held in Ankara on 20 September 1973 [ 24 ]. When attending that symposium his aim was to call the attention of the scientific community on Nerium Oleander extract that showed to be efficacious on some cancer cases regardless of the variety, that had a mechanism of action very different from the drugs used in orthodox medicine those days. It did not cause any loss of hair, nor any drop in leukocyte count. After the administration by I.M. injection it caused a rise in body temperature similar to the one seen following some vaccinations. This fever was dose dependent and easily controllable. Further, no rise in fever occurred following N.O. extract (NOI) injections when all malignant cells disappeared from the body. His hope was that his findings would trigger serious and abundant research on N.O., and that the latter would be put in the service of mankind as soon as possible.

The reaction to his disclosure at the symposium was not as he had hoped for. Some oncologists, pharmacologists, and some other university lecturers involved in the practice of orthodox cancer therapies conspired the government to ban Dr. Ozel and N.O. treatment.

However, Dr. Ozel did not give up his work. He published further case reports in the Turkish Medical Journal Dirim [ 25, 26 ].

In order to be able to work on N.O. and initiate some research on the subject, he retired and moved to Istanbul in April 1974. In Istanbul he contacted various universities. However, no work could be done there to develop further N.O. extracts.

In 1985 he started to look for research facilities abroad. After having filed a patent application for N.O. extracts at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, he contacted a dozen of pharmaceutical companies in some industrialized nations. Sandoz of Switzerland (now known as Novartis after Sandoz merged with another Swiss pharmaceutical firm) showed interest, and tested some extract samples. It was reported that the extract activated the immune system [ 27 ]. Sandoz scientists coined the term "immunomodulator" for the drug. For various reasons, no further collaboration took place with that company.

In 1988 a research team was formed at Munich University Pharmacology Institute to isolate the active components contained in the N.O. extract. Some polysaccharides, which might be responsible of some part of the immune activity, were identified and the initial results were presented as a poster at the symposium of Biology and Chemistry of Active Natural Substances (BACANS) that was held in Bonn, Germany on 17-22 July 1990 [ 28-29 ]. The research team broke up in 1990 when some of its members tried to own the results individually.

In 1992 Dr. Ozel was issued patents in the U.S. [ 30 ], at the European Patent Office, and some other countries for his patent application filed in 1986.

In 1995 a U.S. venture capital firm (then called Pharmaceutical Ventures Trust, later known as Ozelle Pharmaceutical, Inc.(OPI)) requested the licenses of the patents. Dr. Ozel signed a conditional agreement to grant the licenses if OPI developed, and took all the steps to put N.O. in the service of mankind.

OPI registered the trademark ANVIRZEL^TM , and financed some research, and phase I trials that were conducted at Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio.

The purpose of this site is to present N.O. treatement based on Dr. Ozel's experience and observations. He wishes that anyone who wants can apply oleander therapy.