""In children and adults with type 1 diabetes, they have lost 99 percent of their beta cells, so they cannot make enough insulin. That's the cause of their diabetes."
Steward says, "In the world of beta cell regeneration, you can do it in two ways. You can either use stem cells, create stem cells and then transplant them. Or you could take a drug that makes your own beta cells grow."
Though the stem cell method looks promising, Steward says that there will definitely be difficulties with the procedure as it is invasive, and also considering the current demand, there won't be enough supply.
Steward's team has been screening a huge volume of chemicals (more than 100,000) to see which chemical has the potential/ability to regenerate the beta cells. They ended with 86 possible solutions that were then tested manually.
Out of those 86 chemicals, one drug triggered the beta cell growth. This drug is known as harmine.
Harmine is a chemical that naturally occurs in a number of plants around the world, and it is one of the ingredients recently found in the psychoactive mixture of the plant Ayahuasca.
See entire article @ Science Times