Cancer Bush (lessertia Frutescens)

Jenny

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Jenny submitted a new Showcase Item:

Cancer Bush (lessertia Frutescens)

Lessertia frutescens (L.) Goldblatt & J.C.Manning subsp. frutescens (= Sutherlandia frutescens (L.) R.Br.)
Family
: Fabaceae
Common names: sutherlandia, cancer bush, balloon pea (Eng.); umnwele(Xhosa & Zulu); kankerbos, blaasbossie, blaas-ertjie, eendjies, gansiekeurtjie, klappers, hoenderbelletjie (Afr.)

I do not use conventional medicine at all and every year I try to add a few more medicinal plants to my collection. Last year October I bought a cancer bush, because it has many medicinal benefits. From what I read, the plant is supposed to flower in Summer, but my plant started flowering the last month of Autumn (May) and is now still flowering in winter and also producing seed pods, so I will have seeds available to plant from next month, can't wait!

Pics of how the plant looks currently, including pics of the seed pods, is attached to this post.

I developed a bad chest infection a week ago, so I ate a couple of cancerbush leaves and within 2 days the chest infection was gone. I highly recommend this plant!

More details about this plant:
Lessertia frutescens is a much-respected and long-used medicinal plant that is also an attractive garden plant, and has been cultivated in gardens for many years for its fine form, striking colour and luminous flowers. It was previously known as Sutherlandia frutescens.

Lessertia frutescens is an attractive, small, soft-wooded shrublet, 0.5 to 1 m in height. The leaves are pinnately compound, the leaflets 4-10 mm long, grey-green in colour, giving the bush a silvery appearance. They have a very bitter taste.
Lessertia frutescens occurs naturally throughout the dry parts of southern Africa — in Western Cape and up the west coast as far north as Namibia and into Botswana, and in the western Karoo to Eastern Cape. It is also found in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga. It shows remarkable variation within its distribution.
Lessertia frutescens has many common names. It has become widely known as sutherlandia, The name cancer bush, kankerbos, comes from its reputation as a cure for cancer. The names balloon-pea, blaasbossie or blaas-ertjie (meaning bladder-bush or bladder-pea) all refer to the inflated, bladder-like fruits.

Uses
This plant is one of the most talked about in the ethnobotanical world because it has a strong reputation as a cure...

Read more about this showcase item here...
 

ClissAT

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Hi Jenny, this certainly is a pretty little busy and would fit well into most gardens.

I am fully in favour of alternative medicines and theropies.
However, I do like to see scientific proof that a particular botanical works.
But I also realise that the facilities that can do these tests are not going to do them due to the lack of income to be derived from the botanical.
Although they are using botanicals for cancer treatments, as the horendous treatment for breast cancer comes direct from a poisonous tree bark.

Here are the questions I would ask regarding whether a particular botanical works(I'm not getting personal, just scientific);
1. The type of infection should be identified using cultures;
2. If a person is generally healthy, is it possible their body would get on-top of the infection irrespective of taking any remedy?
3. Do they often get these types of infections? (This is indicative of the person not being healthy)
4. Have various remedies including western meds been used on the same person to compare?
 

OskarDoLittle

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Actually science and "big pharmer" invests in heaps of medicines directly from nature...the pharmaceutical companies are enormously interested in working out what the active ingredients are and then manufacturing them. (That's how they make money after all!!)
Take Picato for example...it comes directly from milkweed. It was developed after the scientist's Mum told him about the plant. (And I believe was a Qld discovery). He did the research et voila!!
Aspirin, quinine and morphine (not to mention the original, and many new antibiotics - and the list could go on) are all from nature. There are rafts of new medications for things like cancer and inflammatory diseases based on biologicals
Like ClissAT, I don't agree with people self treating nor relying on "home remedies" as this is just dangerous.
There's often a reason these treatments don't end up as pharmaceuticals...they've been researched and have not been found to do what they claim. (Black salve pops into my head...no reputable evidence for this at all, and it leaves horrible scars.)
I think the questions ClissAT poses are important - plus the other thing to consider is who's actually providing the evidence? Pharmaceuticals are tightly regulated and research is peer reviewed by people how don't have a financial interest in the product. Not all research (even published stuff) is reputable (sadly).
 

ClissAT

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I used black salve on a wet sarcoid on my horse's leg after hearing of success from Britain.
It shocked me how well it worked and I saw the power of natural remedies.
I had previously heard of a naturapath who used it on a lady's chest.
He had caused it to eat a large hole in her chest by daily use that eventually needed medical intervention and the story horrified me.
So I was careful when applying it to my horses leg.
I used it twice, bandaging it on for 3days each time then gave him a rest.
It continued to work without intervention from me for 18mths.
I saw it had stopped working because the growth began growing again so used it again once then left his leg alone again.
That was 3yrs ago and it has only recently stopped working.
The sarcoid is now a small fragment of its original softball size and just a small dry growth.
I would not recommend anyone use it who doesn't have the greatest respect and knowledge of these types of treatments.
 

OskarDoLittle

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The Aust Govt has gone so far as to issue warnings about both black and red salve - recommending no one use it. It indiscriminately causes necrosis of tissue not just skin lesions. Sadly there are documented cases of people with eminently treatable Stage 1 melanoma who used salve instead of surgical management who, by the time they sought "traditional" medical assistance, had developed metastatic melanoma and couldn't be helped. The TGA is unable to ban it because it's not on the register of therapeutic goods.
 

ClissAT

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Yes it certainly is a very powerful substance.
It's just a pity the medical profession and big pharma don't do more with it.
They can't really ban it completely cos it grows everywhere as a weed even at my place.
I chose to buy it because I wasn't sure enough of the process to make the salve myself.
Most varieties of euphorbia have some type of medical ability.
 

Jenny

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In answer to your questions:

I am a very healthy person who rarely gets ill. Over the years, in the distant past, when I took conventional medicine, in the form of antibiotics and so on, prescribed by doctors for bad chest infections and so on, I found that healing took place only about the 4th or 5th day of taking antibiotics. Using natural medicine, on the odd occasion when I do get sick, healing takes place within 1 or 2 days.

Another example: I used to see a neurologist once a month and took Epilim for epilepsy for a number of years. When the neurologist upped my dose, because the lower dose became ineffective, I had severe side effects and I decided to go the alternative medicine route instead. I bought a Gota Kula plant and have been eating a few fresh Gota Kula leaves once or twice a week, for the past 3 years now, and it has definitely made a difference, no more seizures.

So for me personally, natural alternative medicine works and as a result I feel that natural medicine definitely has a place in treating ailments, provided off course that one first studies the plant, its effects and possible side effects , before taking it.
 

ClissAT

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Very interesting re the both kola for your epilepsy, Jenny.

In Europe, USA and to a much lesser extent, Australia, canibus oil is the herb of choice.
We would love to have greater access to it for a large range of ailments but beuocracy has its own ideas!
 

Jenny

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Very interesting re the both kola for your epilepsy, Jenny.

In Europe, USA and to a much lesser extent, Australia, canibus oil is the herb of choice.
We would love to have greater access to it for a large range of ailments but beuocracy has its own ideas!
Cannabis Oil is gaining traction here in South Africa as well and I contemplated trying it out when I stopped taking Epilim, but cannabis oil is very expensive and you can only get it with a prescription from doctor, so I opted to go the Gota Kula route instead and I am not sorry because not only does it not cost me any money, but in addition to helping with the epilepsy, it has so many other additional health benefits as well.

Btw another thing that works wonders for epilepsy, is the keto diet. I tried it for a few months, before I started eating Gota Kula exclusively and while I was on the diet, I had no seizures at all and felt so energetic and full of life, but I cheated on the diet twice and both times I got as sick as a dog for extended periods of time. As a result I have been too scared to go back on the diet again and since then sticking to only my Gota Kula leaves.
 
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