Page 110#28. Amygdalin (Laetrile)
You do not have to look far into cancer alternatives before you will encounter
the subject of laetrile, a chemical cyanide-like substance found in apricot and
other kernels, apple seeds, lima beans, clover, and sorghum. In fact there are
two types of laetrile: a patented product, Laetrile®, which is semi-synthetic, and
laetrile/amygdalin manufactured in Mexico, which is made from crushed apricot
pits.
Laetrile is used world wide against cancer, except in the USA, where it is not
approved by the FDA. They say it doesn’t work and you may begin to suspect a
political angle to this strange limitation of choice. While ever employees of major
drug companies sit on the FDA board, no-one sensible would trust the objectivity
of FDA views.
Once again the Internet has swept into the niche market and there are countless
websites to sell you laetrile at a hefty price (considering it is only crushed nuts).
Many clinics have sprung up, especially over the US border into Mexico, to
service patients who hope that laetrile will work for them. But does it do any
good?
It must be said the evidence is scant. Amygdalin was first isolated in 1830 by two
French chemists and was used as an anticancer agent in Russia as early as 1845.
Its first recorded use in the United States as a treatment for cancer occurred in
the early 1920s but it was judged too toxic and studies ceased.
In the 1950s, a supposedly non-toxic intravenous form of amygdalin was
patented as Laetrile® and in the 1970s the patented and natural forms enjoyed
a vogue. But as the National Institutes for Cancer points out on its laetrile web
page (http://www.nci.nih.gov/cancer_information) no unequivocal evidence has
yet been forthcoming.
Perhaps the best that has been shown is that benzaldehyde, which is made from
laetrile in the body, does have success against cancer cells. Also, by using the
antibody/enzyme trick described above to carry amygdalin right to the tumour
target cells (the “smart bomb”), its killing effect was 36 times greater than for
amygdalin alone.
Finally, amygdalin was shown to sensitize some cancer cells to radiation, which
would in theory help someone who had opted for radiotherapy.