Pokeweed Berries

POKEWEED (Phytolacca Americana)

Other Names: American Nightshade, Cancer Root, Inkberry, Pigeon Berry, Poke, Poke Salad, Poke Sallet, Pokeberry, Pokeroot, Pokeweed, Skoke, Virginia Poke

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Pokeweed is a robust perennial potherb that usually grows 4 to 12 feet tall, then dies back to the root during the winter. It is native to eastern North America but has been grown all over the world. Pookweed is an aggressive plant and is commonly found in disturbed areas all over North America. The plant is tinged with purple-red and has oval, untoothed, stalked, alternate emerald-green colored leaves with a width between 2 to 5 inches and length approximately 8 to 12 inches long. The plant flowers are symmetrical white with green centers eventually turning into dark purple, seed filled berries approximately 1/3 inch in diameter.

My interest in pokeweed began playing as young child in the countryside of rural Pennsylvania. My brotherand I would come home with the purple berries smeared all over our faces, arms and legs. “DON’T EAT those berries!” my mom would warn, “They’re POISONOUS!” I’m sure the same scenario occurred for many others in my age group and locale. This was probably the main reason I took me so long to get around to trying this delicious wild edible. Now I am glad that I did!

Pokeweed is one of the most widely used edible plants in North America, even though it has poisonous parts. Because the toxins can kill, this is not a plant for unsupervised beginners to eat. Study it over several seasons, build experiences with other wild foods, and work with an experienced forager before attempting to survive a pokeweed dinner.

-Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants by “Wildman” Steve Brill

CULINARY USE OF POKEWEED

CULINARY RECIPES USING POKEWEED LEAVES

Pokeweed Basic Preparation 

Boil a large and a medium-sized pot of water to a rolling boil. Boil the pokeweed in the medium-sized pot for 1 minute. Drain, using a colander. Add more boiling water from the large pot, which is your reservoir, and boil another minute. Drain, add more boiling water from the large pot again, and boil another 18 minutes. Drain again. Press the greens against the colander with a slotted spoon to remove excess water. Season to taste and serve. Good with vinegar, pepper, oil, lemon sauce, and bits of smoke-flavored foods.

–Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants by “Wildman” Steve Brill

Poke Salad

1 to 2 lbs. Poke Salad (Poke Leaves)
6 to 8 slices bacon
1 lg. onion
2 eggs
 

Pick and wash poke salad, bring to a rapid boil for 20 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold tepid water. Bring to a rapid boil, starting with cold water, for a second boil for 20 minutes. Again drain and rinse with cold tepid water. Now for the third time, starting over cold tepid water bring to a rapid boil for 20 more minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Let drain completely.

Meantime fry bacon and save drippings; set aside. Clean and cut onion in quarters. Take drained poke salad. Cook in fry pan that you fried your bacon. Add 1/4 cup of drippings and shortening from bacon. Add onion, 1/4 cup of water, salt to taste. Let steam fry until onions are sauteed, about 15 to 20 minutes. Serve and garnish with hard-boiled egg and bacon.

-Cooks.com “Poke Salad”

MEDICINAL USE OF POKEWEED

Pokeweed Plant With Blossoms

The roots and berries of the Pokeweed plant are poisonous to eat, but are often used medicinally.  Poke root has been used as an anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antiviral.  It affects the glands, lungs, spleen and kidneys and has been used to treat swollen and/or inflamed glands, breast cysts, and tumors.  In folk medicine it is used for its anti-inflammatory properties to ease arthritis and rheumatism.

In his book “The Way of Herbs”, Michael Tierra cites pokeroot as “one of the two or three most important native herbs for treating cancer” and indicates that it should be used with “a broad-spectrum blood-purifying formula, such as the Hoxsey formula” with dosage being “no more than 5-10 drops every 3 hours”.

Information on the Hoxsey Formula and Harry Hoxsey can be found in the book Cancer Salves: A Botanical Approach to Treatment by Dr. Ingrid Naiman .

Click here to watch Hoxsey: How Healing Becomes a Crime (Free)

Tierra also recommends making a syrup of fresh pokeroot, because a syrup lessens gastrointestinal irritation.  To make the syrup add fresh green pokeroot tincture to a base of syrup or honey.  (Click Here to Learn How to Make Tinctures.)  Tierra recommends using 5-10 drops every three hours.

Some research has shown that a protein contained in pokeweed, called pokeweed antiviral protein (PAP), has anti-tumor effects in mice and laboratory studies. In test tube studies, PAP has also shown action against viruses such as herpes and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Research has shown that pokeweed contains a compound that appears to enhance the immune system and has some anti-cancer effects in animals. According to one animal study, pokeweed antiviral protein (PAP), a protein contained in the plant, demonstrated anti-cancer effects in rodents. Another study found that PAP, when combined with an immunotherapy drug called TP-3, holds promise as a potential treatment for advanced osteosarcomas and some soft tissue sarcomas. Laboratory studies have suggested that certain formulations of PAP may be turn out to be useful against cancer cells that depend on hormones for their growth, such as cells from prostate, breast, and ovarian cancer.

PAP also acts against some viruses such as herpes and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and it is being studied as a possible antiviral. In laboratory studies, it seemed to help protect cells against HIV, and researchers are studying whether it might help protect people from HIV infection. However, even though animal and laboratory studies may show a certain compound looks promising, studies in people are necessary to find out whether the results hold true for humans.

-Cancer.org

In her book “Jude’s Herbal Home Remedies”,  Jude Todd stresses that pokeweed should be used with caution in any home remedy.  “I call it the chemotherapy of herbs, as it is it is an extremely strong purge.  It duplicates the effects of cortisone, which stimulates the entire glandular system.”  She also indicates that it should be used “only when drastic measures are called for and when all other methods have failed or not suitable.”  Ms. T0dd also explains that pokeweed is a violent laxative and diuretic that cleans the entire system.

Adult Pokeweed with Unripe and Ripe Berries

HERBAL RECIPES USING POKE ROOT

Poke Root Tea

1 tsp powdered or cut dried pokeroot
1 cup water
Simmer pokeroot herb in water.

Recipe courtesy of “The Way of Herbs” by Michael Tierra.  Tierra recommends taking one mouthful several times throughout the day.

Poke Root Tincture

Click Here to Learn How to Make and Herbal Tinctures

Formula for Glandular System, Arthritic, and Rheumatic Complaints

Dried Poke Root
Sasparilla Root
Dandelion Root
Burdock Root
Spikenard
Ginger
Licorice Root (1/2 part of this)

Use equal parts to make a standard decoction.

Recipe courtesy of “The Way of Herbs” by Michael Tierra.   Tierra recommends taking two or three cups daily.

My Personal Use of Pokeweed

We eat pokeweed as a boiled green in our house.  I use the leaves only from all sized plants, making sure there is no red or purple in the vein of the leaves.  I do not use the stems, flowers, root, or berries.  To prepare the greens, I boil them three times discarding the water each time.  My family and I think pokeweed is delicious.  It is very tender and mild, it reminds me of asparagus.  We eat it as Poke Salad using the recipe above and in omelettes and quiche.

I have a great poke story! When my hubby had cancer last year..all of a sudden a poke plant started growing right outside my front door. I have lived here 23 years and never had one there before. Poke berries are a natural remedy to cancer. Don’t tell me nature doesn’t know our needs!

 -Jyll Renee’, Master Herbologist

Click Here to Visit Our FREE Online Guide to Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants

Click Here to Visit Our FREE Online Herbal Materia Medica

Sources:

Brill, S., & Dean, E. (2002). Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places. New York: HarperResource.

Cancer.org. (n.d.). Pokeweed. Retrieved July 26, 2011, from Cancer.org: http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/HerbsVitaminsandMinerals/pokeweed

Cooks.com. (n.d.). Poke Salad. Retrieved July 20, 2011, from Cooks.com: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1650,150172-232192,00.html

Tierra, M. (1998). The Way of Herbs. New York: Pocket Books.

Todd, J. (1995). Jude’s Herbal Home Remedies. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications.

Courtesy of

Special Thanks to Kim Thomas for forwarding this article to LuminEarth.

Are apricot seeds a source for a natural substance that kills cancer cells without destroying the cancer victim’s health and wealth? The essential ingredient has been called laetrile or vitamin B 17. If there is any merit to it, why is this information being suppressed? Why are people who have been cured or have cured others being censured and imprisoned? Could be there is something to the claims.

Keep in mind that the cancer industry world wide is estimated at a 200 billion dollar a year industry. There are many in various associated positions within that industry who would be without a job if that cash flow dried up suddenly with the news that there are cheaper, less harmful, and more efficacious remedies available. Big Pharmacy would virtually vanish.

What is B17, or Laetrile Anyway?

In 1952, a biochemist named Dr. Ernst Krebb, Jr. in San Francisco decided that cancer was a metabolic reaction to a poor diet, and a missing nutrient from modern man’s diet could be the key to overcoming cancer. His research led to a compound found in over 1200 edible plants throughout nature. That compound is amagdylin,

Amagdylin is found with the highest concentration and necessary enzymes in apricot seed kernels. A primitive tribe, the Hunzas, were known to consume large amounts of apricot seed kernels. The hard pit had to be broken to get into the soft kernels. There was no incidence of cancer with them at all, ever. And they had long, healthy life spans. Laetrile was created by simply extracting amagdylin from the soft apricot kernels, purifying it and putting it into a concentrated form.

Amagdylin is a nitrioloside. Nitriolisides are difficult to categorize since they are in foods but not foods themselves. As a nitrioloside, amagdylin resembled the B complex structures, so Dr. Krebb called it B17 since by that time 16 types of B vitamins had been isolated.

Dr. Krebb injected himself with laetrile to ensure there would be no toxic side effects. He conducted further lab animal and culture experiments to conclude that laetrile would be effective in the treatment of cancer. By the way, the FDA standard for drug safety is known as LD 50, LD stands for lethal dose, and the 50 is the percentage threshold of lab animals poisoned to death by the drug tested. As long as the percentage killed is under 50%, FDA will approve it!

Since laetrile is derived directly from a food substance in nature and not chemically developed in a laboratory, it is impossible to patent. And of course it’s not toxic. In other words, just as with all natural healing substances, Big Pharma and the AMA can’t make a fortune from the substance and from the remedies for the long term side effects. There have been several testimonies from cancer victims who cured themselves by chewing large quantities of the apricot seeds alone.

The seeds are more available to consumers now than laetrile because in 1971 the FDA banned laetrile. Laetrile is difficult, but not impossible, to purchase. The seeds are actually the soft almond shaped, bitter tasting kernels from inside the pits. A few users prefer extracting those soft kernels from the pits themselves. But the soft kernels are available and inexpensive.

So How Does It Work?

Amagdylin contains four substances. Two are glucose; one is benzaldyhide, and one is cyanide. Yes, cyanide and benzaldyhide are poisons if they are released or freed as pure molecules and not bound within other molecular formations. Many foods containing cyanide are safe because the cyanide remains bound and locked as part of another molecule and therefore cannot cause harm.

There is even an enzyme in normal cells to catch any free cyanide molecules and to render them harmless by combining them with sulfur. That enzyme is rhodanese, which catalyzes the reaction and binds any free cyanide to sulfur. By binding the cyanide to sulfur, it is converted to a cyanate which is a neutral substance. Then it is easily passed through the urine with no harm to the normal cells.

But cancer cells are not normal. They contain an enzyme that other cells do not share, beta-glucosidase. This enzyme, virtually exclusive to cancer cells, is considered the “unlocking enzyme” for amagdylin molecules. It releases both the benzaldyhide and the cyanide, creating a toxic synergy beyond their uncombined sum. This is what the cancer cell’s beta-glucosidase enzyme does to self destruct cancer cells.

Amagdylin or laetrile in conjunction with the protective enzymes in healthy cells and the unlocking enzymes in cancer cells is thus able to destroy cancer cells without jeopardizing healthy cells. Chemotherapy, on the other hand, kills a lot of other cells and diminishes one’s immune system while killing an undetermined amount of cancer cells.

Those cancer cells tend to return elsewhere because the patient’s general health was reduced from the pervasive chemo toxins. The cancer industry has declared the bench mark for curing cancer as being cancer free for 5 years. It’s estimated that of those who undergo the AMA big three for curing cancer, surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, no more than 3% make the 5 year cancer free mark. Besides the treatments’ debilitating effects, they are much more expensive!

But for someone with cancer, it takes a considerable amount of daily B17 consumption to enable the amagdylin to reach the cancer cells with beta-glucosidase. That’s because some of the amagdylin molecules will be neutralized by the normal cells containing rhodanese.

Many practitioners who use laetrile have an 85% cure rate among cancer victims who did not undergo much of the standard cut, burn, and poison that is main-stream – while the cure rate for those who come to laetrile therapy as a last resort after all that conventional medicine could only have a 15% recovery rate. There is a clinic in Mexico that claims a 100 percent cure rate!

The Medical Mafia’s Suppression

Since around 1920, practitioners of alternative cancer therapies and remedies and their messengers have been marginalized, harassed, imprisoned, and even killed. Federal agencies have been used to bring about bogus charges or IRS tax liens that are enforced by US Marshals the way Dr. Gary Glum was hassled for even writing books on Essiac Tea. See Natural News article “Essiac Tea: A Cancer Cure Big Pharma Doesn’t Want You To Know About.” http://www.naturalnews.com/026928_c….

A young Brooklyn man, Jason Vale, was imprisoned because he refused to stop telling others on TV and in lectures how he cured himself of cancer using those nasty apricot pit kernels! Jason is a more recent public example of the Medical Mafia’s grip on the legal system regarding B17. Laetrile, which is non toxic, was banned by the FDA in 1971.

Shortly after the 1971 laetrile ban, a practicing physician in San Francisco, Dr. John Richardson, who had been using laetrile successfully on cancer patients, came to his friend G. Edward Griffin, a published investigative journalist, and asked Griffin if he could write up something to help him and others continue using laetrile on their cancer patients.

G. Edward Griffin’s research evolved into his groundbreaking book, World Without Cancer. This book not only explained laetrile and chronicled several cancer cures, but Griffin’s investigative nose led him down the rabbit hole and into the underbelly of the cancer industry’s efforts at keeping alternative cancer cures from the light of day. That’s how he discovered that the Sloane-Kettering Cancer Institute had buried documentation from scientists’ research, which proved laetrile was “highly effective” at curing cancer.

Griffin received those documents himself from a Dr. Ralph Moss, who had been told to cover up that evidence and claim that laetrile was worthless. He refused and left his position as PR manager with Sloane-Kettering. Since that time in 1977, Dr. Ralph Moss has gone on to write or edit several books on cancer cure options. It’s always encouraging to see an insider come out! Someone else filled Dr. Moss’s vacant position and lied the lies about laetrile that filled the medical journals.

And what about those medical journals? Lately, the most prestigious New England Journal of Medicine dropped its standard of not allowing articles contributed to the journal from anyone who was receiving money from Big Pharma, as long as it’s less than 10 grand annually. If they didn’t drop that standard, there wouldn’t be enough articles to fill the journal! Of course, most medical journals are glossy ad forums for Big Pharma anyway.

Both G. Edward Griffin with World Without Cancer and Phillip Day in his book Cancer: Why We’re Still Dying to Know the Truth, make it very clear that the cancer industry does not really want a cure. Even non-profit organizations get millions in donations from the brainwashed, huddled masses along with funding for promoting Big Pharma. A non-profit organization can and will have key people working for 6 figure plus annual salaries, by the way.

Doctors mostly do as they are trained and told; medical journals contain false reports and lies. Cancer foundations have breast cancer months or whatever as PR to get people into the disease industry’s money mill as early as possible, and at the top, there is Big Pharma. It’s all about money and career. Not about public health and “The War on Cancer.”

So far in mainstream medicine, it’s been a losing battle with more getting cancer than ever. Around 1 out of 3 is destined to get cancer these days, and more are dying from cancer after conventional treatments. Talk about pandemics! All this with lots of cash going their way, enabling some to live a lush lifestyle and others hanging on to their comfy, secure jobs at the expense of our health.

Meanwhile, too many true humanitarian doctors and herbalists and writers concerned with the truth wind up being treated like criminals or nut cases, sometimes with their lives destroyed. That’s tragic. And so is the fact that millions suffer and die while being conditioned against using effective and less painless procedures.

Laetrile Treatment

There are many success stories from people using just laetrile or apricot pit kernels. The usual recommendation for prevention is around 5 to 7 over the course of a day. For actual cancer cases use 2 to 3 times that. Some say one kernel for every 10 lbs of body weight. For maintenance after a cure, go back to 5 to 7 per day.

Some laetrile therapists have patients use vitamin B15 tablets and digestive enzymes such as papaya’s papain and pineapple’s bromalene. Too many apricot pit kernels can create nausea or dizziness. There are no recorded deaths or disabilities from the apricot seeds or laetrile, however. Although some success has been recorded with patients undergoing conventional therapy and using laetrile, it’s not recommended. Eventually most of those who combine the two get off the chemo or die anyway.

There are many practitioners and writers who recommend you combine other alternative cancer therapies while taking laetrile or using the apricot pits – especially if you go for it alone at home. It should be obvious to Natural News readers that a foundation of healthy food and less stress is necessary. A fundamental lifestyle change has to be a part of any permanent cancer cure. In addition, a little eclectic mix and match with other alternative therapies seems like a good approach.

For example, Gerson’s cancer cure therapy’s juicing protocol with the right type of juicer and using coffee enemas to detox the liver could be added with laetrile use. It’s hard to go wrong with that healthy combination. See Natural News article on the Gerson Therapy for more details here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/027004_c…

Do your own research by starting with the source links below this article. Those sources are for more than showing the author has done his homework. The author intends for you to use them as a springboard for your own research. Why waste your money and health on toxic remedies when so much is available as alternatives for far less money and negative side effects?

Sources:

Excellent interview of G. Edward Griffin on laetrile and the cancer industry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFnP…

An excellent overview of different cancer cure options
http://www.1cure4allcancer.com/the_…

A vast, indexed and categorized free source of cancer cure options with details you can use – It’s the free online bible of cancer cure options
http://www.cancertutor.com/index.html

Information on apricot seeds with more details
http://www.detailshere.com/cancerap…

Vitamin B17 – contains information on supplements to include with B17 and a list of foods with B17, also a few caveats on using B17
http://www.detailshere.com/cancerb1…

Author Phillip Day’s blog
http://www.credence.org/

Sources:

NaturalNews.com, extracted in entirety with permission on April 9, 2010 from http://www.naturalnews.com/027088_cancer_laetrile_health.html

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Lee Swanson Research Update

January 2010

Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is the most common unmanaged symptom in patients who are undergoing chemotherapy, radiation therapy, biologic therapy, or have completed cancer therapy.

Researchers throughout the country, working through the Mayo Clinic, investigated the potential of three doses of American ginseng root for alleviating CRF and found some success.

Two-hundred ninety patients with CRF were included in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled multi-center study. The patients were divided into four groups and were given either placebo or 750 mg, 1,000 mg or 2,000 mg of American ginseng per day.

Researchers reported no statistical differences between the placebo and ginseng groups on the primary or secondary endpoints. However, for the primary efficacy endpoint, there was a trend for greater positive effects with the highest dose of ginseng compared with placebo. Also, the highest dose was more effective than the other doses and more effective than placebo at improving vitality and quality of life.

Compared with the placebo group, more than twice as many patients in the 1,000 mg and 2,000 mg per day groups perceived a “moderate” to “very much better” improvement in fatigue at study end. In addition, more patients treated with 1,000 mg and 2,000 mg doses were satisfied with their treatment for fatigue than those treated with placebo.

Study authors concluded that 1,000 mg and 2,000 mg per day of American ginseng decreased fatigue more than placebo. They state that the most compelling evidence is the patient-reported improvement. Further, it is also compelling that there were no significant toxicities in the ginseng groups compared with the placebo group.

Support Care Cancer Published online ahead of print.

Source: Swanson, L., Swanson Health Products, extracted January 8, 2009 from http://www.swansonvitamins.com/health-library/articles/nutrition/american-ginseng-may-help-fight-cancer-related-fatigue.html?SourceCode=INTHIR352

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[John's comments - I had a chance to watch this movie through Netflix.  It does a great job of highlighting many of the aspects of natural health that I send to you via these Health Updates.  If natural health topics are of interest to you, I'd highly recommend you take the time to watch this show.]

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John Ayo, N.D.
Juice Plus
Young Living Essential Oils

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Researchers noted that chemotherapy drugs often cause inflammation of the liver, making it necessary to lower the dose or suspend treatment until the inflammation subsides. They noted that such interruptions in therapy can make treatment less effective.

“We found that milk thistle, compared to placebo, was more effective in reducing inflammation,” said lead researcher Dr. Kara Kelly, from New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center’s Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center in New York City. “If these results are confirmed, milk thistle may allow us to treat liver inflammation or prevent it from occurring, which will allow better delivery of chemotherapy drugs,” she added.

For the study, Kelly’s team randomly assigned 50 children undergoing chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia to receive milk thistle or a placebo for 28 days. All the children had liver inflammation at the start of the study.

Twenty-eight days later, the children who had received milk thistle had improved liver enzymes, compared with the children who received a placebo, the researchers said.

The milk thistle group had significantly lower levels of one enzyme in particular, AST, and a trend toward lower levels of another enzyme called ALT, Kelly’s group found.

In addition, milk thistle appeared to help patients tolerate higher doses of chemotherapy. Sixty-one percent of the children receiving milk thistle needed dose reductions, compared with 72% of the children receiving placebo, but the difference is not significant, the researchers noted. Related lab experiments showed the herb did not lessen the effectiveness of the chemotherapy drugs, and Kelly thinks milk thistle might reduce liver inflammation for patients with other cancers who are taking other types of chemotherapy as well. Further research is needed, she said, to determine the appropriate dose and duration of milk thistle therapy. Her team also hopes to evaluate the herb’s ability to prevent chemo-induced liver inflammation.

Cancer Published online ahead of print.

Source:
Swanson, L. “Milk Thistle May Counter Liver Damage from Chemotherapy”. (December, 2009). Copied in entirety from http://www.swansonvitamins.com/health-library/articles/liver-health/milk-thistle-may-counter-liver-damage-from-chemotherapy.html?SourceCode=INTHIR351

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