Herbs For Relieving Cancer

Burdock

This herb gets its name from bur, for its tenacious burrs, and dock old English for plant. Many scientists are skeptical about Burdock and its uses. However, as a healing herb it has a potential for treating cancer. Early Chinese physicians, as well as Ayurvedic healers, used Burdock as a remedy for colds, flu, throat infections and pneumonia. During the 14th Century, its leaves were pounded in wine and used to treat leprosy. From 1930-1950, Burdock was used as an ingredient in alternative cancer treatments.

The FDA noted that too much of this herb can cause side effects and lists Burdock as an herb of "undefined safety". However, German researchers have discovered fresh Burdock root contains polyacetylenes, a chemical that kills disease-causing bacteria and fungi. It also reduces mucus and prevents formation of gall and kidney stones. As Burdock contains vitamin A and selenium, it can eliminate free radicals.

Its chromium content helps regulate blood sugar levels. Other qualities of this herb, set forth in the magazine Chemotherapy, identified a chemical (arctigenin) in Burdock which acts as an inhibitor of tumor growth.

!!! This herb should not be used by pregnant women.!!!

History

Burdock is also known by the names Bardane, Clotburr, Beggars Buttons, Gypsy Rhubarb, Gobo, and Burr. In traditional herbal texts, Burdock Root is described as a "blood purifier" or "alterative", and was believed to clear the bloodstream of toxins.

The genus name "Arctium" is from the Greek, arktos, meaning "bear"' in reference to the shaggy burrs. "Beurre" is French for "butter" as French women would wrap their cakes of butter in leaves of Burdock to transport it to the marketplace. During the Industrial Revolution, Burdock was used as a medicine to help people cope with the increasing environmental pollution.

The Swiss inventor, George de Mestral, who invented "Velcro", was inspired by the Burdock burrs that covered his dog; when he observed the burrs under a magnifying glass, he saw the tiny curved hooks.

And in Hawaii, the roots of this herb are sometimes given as a "gag" wedding gift because of their aphrodisiac powers.

Medicinally, Burdock Root has been used both internally and externally for eczema and psoriasis, as well as to treat painful joints and as a diuretic.

In traditional Chinese medicine, Burdock Root, in combination with other herbs, is used to treat sore throats, tonsillitis, colds, and even measles.

It is eaten as a vegetable in Japan and elsewhere. Burdock is a mild laxative. It also aids in the elimination of uric acid. The herb contains polyacetylenes that have both anti-bacterial & anti-fungal properties. By improving the function of many organs of elimination (liver, kidneys, bowels), many health conditions can be improved.

Burdock Root contains high amounts of inulin and mucilage. This may explain its soothing effects on the gastrointestinal tract. Bitter constituents in the root may also explain the traditional use of Burdock to improve digestion. The polyacetylene constituents have also been shown to have anti-microbial activity. Burdock Root (and the fruit) also have the ability to mildly lower blood sugar (hypoglycemic effect).

Cultivation

As the Burdock grows freely in waste places and hedgerows, it can be collected in the wild state, and is seldom worth cultivating.

It will grow in almost any soil, but the roots are formed best in a light well-drained soil. The seeds germinate readily and may be sown directly in the field, either in autumn or early spring, in drills 18 inches to 3 feet apart, sowing 1 inch deep in autumn, but less in spring. The young plants when well up are thinned out to 6 inches apart in the row.

Yields at the rate of 1,500 to 2,000 lb. of dry roots per acre have been obtained from plantations of Burdock.

Parts Used Medicinally

The dried root from plants of the first year's growth forms the official drug, but the leaves and fruits (commonly, though erroneously, called seeds) are also used.

The roots are dug in July, and should be lifted with a beet-lifter or a deep-running plough. As a rule they are 12 inches or more in length and about 1 inch thick, sometimes, however, they extend 2 to 3 feet, making it necessary to dig by hand. They are fleshy, wrinkled, crowned with a tuft of whitish, soft, hairy leaf-stalks, grey-brown externally, whitish internally, with a somewhat thick bark, about a quarter of the diameter of the root, and soft wood tissues, with a radiate structure.

Burdock root has a sweetish and mucilaginous taste.

Burdock leaves, which are less used than the root, are collected in July. For drying, follow the drying of Coltsfoot leaves. They have a somewhat bitter taste.

The seeds (or fruits) are collected when ripe. They are brownish-grey, wrinkled, about 1/4 inch long and 1/16 inch in diameter. They are shaken out of the head and dried by spreading them out on paper in the sun.

Constituents

Inulin, mucilage, sugar, a bitter, crystalline glucoside - Lappin-a little resin, fixed and volatile oils, and some tannic acid.

The roots contain starch, and the ashes of the plant, burnt when green, yield carbonate of potash abundantly, and also some nitre.

Medicinal Action and Uses

Alterative, diuretic and diaphoretic. One of the best blood purifiers. In all skin diseases, it is a certain remedy and has effected a cure in many cases of eczema, either taken alone or combined with other remedies, such as Yellow Dock and Sarsaparilla.

The root is principally employed, but the leaves and seeds are equally valuable. Both root and seeds may be taken as a decoction of 1 OZ. to 1 1/2 pint of water, boiled down to a pint, in doses of a wineglassful, three or four times a day.

The anti-scorbutic properties of the root make the decoction very useful for boils, scurvy and rheumatic affections, and by many it is considered superior to Sarsaparilla, on account of its mucilaginous, demulcent nature; it has in addition been recommended for external use as a wash for ulcers and scaly skin disorders.

An infusion of the leaves is useful to impart strength and tone to the stomach, for some forms of long-standing indigestion.

When applied externally as a poultice, the leaves are highly resolvent for tumours and gouty swellings, and relieve bruises and inflamed surfaces generally. The bruised leaves have been applied by the peasantry in many countries as cataplasms to the feet and as a remedy for hysterical disorders.

From the seeds, both a medicinal tincture and a fluid extract are prepared, of benefit in chronic skin diseases. Americans use the seeds only, considering them more efficacious and prompt in their action than the other parts of the plant. They are relaxant and demulcent, with a limited amount of tonic property. Their influence upon the skin is due largely to their being of such an oily nature: they affect both the sebaceous and sudoriferous glands, and probably owing to their oily nature restore that smoothness to the skin which is a sign of normal healthy action.

The infusion or decoction of the seeds is employed in dropsical complaints, more especially in cases where there is co-existing derangement of the nervous system, and is considered by many to be a specific for all affections of the kidneys, for which it may with advantage be taken several times a day, before meals.

Preparations

Fluid extract, root, 1/2 to 2 drachms. Solid extract, 5 to 15 grains. Fluid extract, seed, 10 to 30 drops.

Culpepper gives the following uses for the Burdock:

'The Burdock leaves are cooling and moderately drying, wherby good for old ulcers and sores.... The leaves applied to the places troubled with the shrinking in the sinews or arteries give much ease: a juice of the leaves or rather the roots themselves given to drink with old wine, doth wonderfully help the biting of any serpents- the root beaten with a little salt and laid on the place suddenly easeth the pain thereof, and helpeth those that are bit by a mad dog:... the seed being drunk in wine 40 days together doth wonderfully help the sciatica: the leaves bruised with the white of an egg and applied to any place burnt with fire, taketh out the fire, gives sudden ease and heals it up afterwards.... The root may be preserved with sugar for consumption, stone and the lax. The seed is much commended to break the stone, and is often used with other seeds and things for that purpose."

It was regarded as a valuable remedy for stone in the Middle Ages, and called Bardona. As a rule, the recipes for stone contained some seeds or 'fruits' of a 'stony' character, as gromel seed, ivy berries, and nearly always saxifrage, i.e. 'stone-breaker.' Even date-stones had to be pounded and taken; the idea being that what is naturally 'stony' would cure it; that 'like cures like' (Henslow).

Treats certain cancers, prevents diabetes

Burdock's name is a combination of bur, for its spiked seed covers - burrs - that grab onto anything that touches them, and dock, Old English for "plant." Many scientists dismiss burdock as useless, but like its seeds, its reputation as an herbal healing agent clings tenaciously because of its subtle tonic benefits and its intriguing potential as a treatment for cancer.

Throughout history, burdock has been recommended for an astonishing number of illnesses. Ancient Chinese physicians used it to treat colds, coughs, tonsillitis, measles, skin infections and snakebite. Traditional European and American herbalists and homeopaths prescribed it for colds, arthritis, gout, stomach problems, fever, canker sores, leprosy, boils, gonorrhea, ringworm and infertility. They also considered it an excellent diuretic, and prescribed it for urinary tract infections, kidney problems and painful urination.

True, burdock is not powerfully therapeutic. But Daniel B. Mowrey, PhD, director of the American Phytotherapy Research Laboratory in Salt Lake City, Utah, and author of The Scientific Validation of Herbal Medicine, insists that it deserves its enduring place in herbal healing because of its value as a tonic - a subtle strengthener with cumulatively helpful effects.

"Burdock's action is mild, but real," Dr. Mowrey explains. "It has antibacterial and antiviral powers, and it reduces blood sugar, which helps prevent diabetes. I recommend using a little every day. And when you're ill, use it in addition to standard therapies."

A Potential Cancer Fighter

And after all is said and done, burdock may one day prove valuable as a cancer fighter. Burdock's use against cancer goes way back. The 12th-century German abbess and herbalist Hildegard of Bingen used burdock to treat cancerous tumors, and down through the centuries it has been used as a tumor treatment in Russia, China, India and the Americas. In the United States, it was an ingredient in the popular but highly controversial Hoxsey Cancer Formula, an alternative therapy marketed from the 1930s to the 1950s by ex-coal-miner Harry Hoxsey.

"Five good foreign studies show intriguing anti-tumor or anti-mutation activity," says Dr. Mowrey. (Most substances that cause genetic mutations also cause cancer.) "Recently," says James A. Duke, PhD, author of The CRC Handbook of Medicinal Herbs, "the National Cancer Institute became interested in burdock as part of its Designer Foods Program, an effort to use biotechnology to introduce cancer-preventive chemicals into common food crops." Duke is a botanist retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Traditional and Folk use

  • Buds & roots used for sores, boils, abscess or chancre by the Micmac--Chandler, R. Frank, Lois Freeman and Shirley N. Hooper 1979 Herbal Remedies of the Maritime Indians. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 1:49-68
  • Rheumatism, gravel, scurvy and "weakly females." Root or seed infusion as blood cleanser and for venereal diseases. Boiled poultice for leg ulcers and swollen legs--Hamel, Paul B. and Mary U. Chiltoskey 1975 Cherokee Plants and Their Uses -- A 400 Year History. Sylva, N.C. Herald Publishing Co.
  • Rheumatism, gravel, scurvy and "weakly females." Root or seed infusion as blood cleanser and for venereal diseases. Boiled poultice for leg ulcers and swollen legs--Hamel, Paul B. and Mary U. Chiltoskey 1975 Cherokee Plants and Their Uses -- A 400 Year History. Sylva, N.C. Herald Publishing Co.
  • Sores treated with burdock roots and Populus bud balsam by the Malecite--Mechling, W.H. 1959 The Malecite Indians With Notes on the Micmacs. Anthropologica 8:239-263
  • Roots crushed with gilead buds for sores; buds infusion for chancre by the Malecite--Mechling, W.H. 1959 The Malecite Indians With Notes on the Micmacs. Anthropologica 8:239-263
  • Leaf poultice applied to the head for a headache remedy among the Abnaki. Roots used for rheumatism. Also used for trembling fever and grippe---Rousseau, Jacques 1947 Ethnobotanique Abenakise. Archives de Folklore 11:145-182
  • Poultice of wet leaves & salt applied to swellings by the Iroquois. Root infusion used as blood purifier--Rousseau, Jacques 1945 Le Folklore Botanique De Caughnawaga. Contributions de l'Institut botanique l'Universite de Montreal 55:7-72
  • Root infusion is blood purifier and general tonic--Smith, Huron H. 1933 Ethnobotany of the Forest Potawatomi Indians. Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 7:1-230
  • A minus root used for stomach pain by the Ojibwa and is considered a tonic--Smith, Huron H. 1932 Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians. Bulletin of the Public Museum of Milwaukee 4:327-525
  • Blood cleanser - roots--Reagan, Albert B. 1928 Plants Used by the Bois Fort Chippewa (Ojibwa) Indians of Minnesota. Wisconsin Archeologist 7(4):230-248
  • Dry cough treated with leaf infusion--Densmore, Frances 1928 Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians. SI-BAE Annual Report #44:273-379
  • Pleurisy treated with root decoction by the Oto--Gilmore, Melvin R. 1919 Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region. SI-BAE Annual Report #33
  • Warm root poultice put on boil or abscess by the Penobscot--Speck, Frank G. 1917 Medicine Practices of the Northeastern Algonquians. Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Americanists Pp. 303-321

Herb of the Month

Arctium lappa

December 2002

Latin Binomial

Arctium lappa

Common Names

Burdock, Gobo, Burr burr

Species Used

A. lappa, similar species are A. minus, A. tomentosum

Family

Compositae/Asteraceae

Habitat

Arctium is an introduced European plant that grows along roadsides, pastures and in abandoned lots.

Botanical Description

Arctium lappa is a biennial thistle that may grow 2-6 feet tall. A large brownish-gray taproot supports the plant and gives rise to the stem. Large egg or heart-shaped leaves have a thin, woolly down on their undersurfaces. Flowers are purple with a calyx of scales with hooks.

Parts Used:

Roots, seeds, leaves

Historical Uses:

  • In Japan Arctium is known as Gobo and has been used as food for about 1,000 years after Buddhist monks brought the plant into the country. They used the root to cure such things as constipation and mercury poisoning and the leaves externally to heal rashes and burns.
  • Today many Japanese as well as Europeans use Arctium as food and medicine.
  • In Europe during the world wars Arctium was used as a treatment for wounds.
  • Pilgrims brought A. lappa over to North America and native Americans quickly added the plant to their herbal repertories for its blood purifying abilities, as a kidney tonic and also to increase concentration.
  • Paracelsus recommended Arctium as a hair-growing agent.

Constituents:

  • inulin, tannin
  • polyacetylenes
  • volatile oils
  • non-hydroxyl acids
  • polyphenolic acids

Medicinal Actions:

  • Alterative
  • antimutagenic
  • diuretic
  • diaphoretic
  • laxative
  • immunostimulatory
  • anti-inflammatory

Medicinal Uses:

  • Arctium is tonifying in its action and is known as a blood purifier. The herb is valuable because of its alterative actions, which increase the body's ability to break down toxins and eliminate them, thus improving the quality of the blood. This herb greatly benefits the skin, making Arctium indicated in problems with dry, scaly skin, such as psoriasis, eczema, acne and boils.
  • The bitter effect of Arctium lends its use in strengthening the digestive system. Bitter herbs act to stimulate the appetite by enhancing the secretion of digestive juices. The leaves also act on the digestive system by stimulating the secretion of bile which increases absorption of fat-soluble nutrients.
  • Arctium is valuable in treating kidney and urinary disorders. It gently stimulates and soothes the kidneys to eliminate uric acid, making the herb useful in treating gout and rheumatism.
  • Arctium is also considered to be an anti-mutagen and is added to anti-cancer formulas because it stimulates white blood cells. However, Arctium should not be used alone for this purpose.
  • Arctium has anti-inflammatory effects and is used adjunctively to treat rheumatic arthritis.