Cancer-Fighting Plant Found Only In The Exotic Tropics
Of...Indiana?
By Kurtis Bright
Meet The Paw-Paw Fruit: ‘Tropical’ Midwest Plant May
Prove The Best Tool Yet For Fighting Cancer
Every day it seems like Western science is bumbling across health
secrets derived from exotic, mysterious plants discovered in faraway lands,
secrets previously only understood by a handful of indigenous people who stuck
with the Old Ways that were handed down by their elders.
The paw-paw fruit fits that description to a T: it is a
little-known, relatively rare plant that is found only in one specific region,
it has long been known to the locals as a healthful, nutritious food, and its
curative properties are only now beginning to emerge.
It fits the bill perfectly, were it not for the fact that
the paw-paw comes from the exotic, faraway land of Indiana and southern
Michigan--not exactly a tropical Pacific island.
Sometimes called the Hoosier banana or the Michigan banana,
the paw-paw fruit has a smooth texture that has been likened to custard, and a
subtle flavor that is reminiscent of bananas and strawberries. The paw-paw has
been known to natural health food enthusiasts for a while now, but it has yet
to truly enter the mainstream, although you can occasionally find paw-paw
supplement capsules on the shelves of health food stores.
But it's hard to understand why it remains so obscure:
boasting antioxidant levels on a par with that of cranberries, 20 times the
magnesium of apples, bananas or strawberries, 70 times the iron of the above
mentioned fruits, more vitamin C than oranges, and an excellent source of amino
acids, the paw-paw fruit is truly a miracle food.
Even more exciting, new research is showing that its
cancer-fighting properties may be even more miraculous.
For starters, the bark of the paw-paw tree seems to be one
of the strongest anti-cancer compounds known to date, according to a
large-scale study conducted at Purdue University.
That study along with a second one, which was also led by
Dr. Jerry McLaughlin of Purdue, has led to several patents, and was found to
offer strong evidence that the tree bark of the paw-paw can be a powerful ally
in the fight against even drug-resistant cancers.
The study McLaughlin led showed that over 40 anti-cancer
compounds are in paw-paw bark. And while he noted that cancer cells are
famously complex and hard to kill in humans, the study’s results showed promise
that with wider studies, the bark could prove to be the basis for a whole new range
of cancer treatments in practice.
“The paw-paw compounds are not only effective in killing
tumors that have proven resistant to anti-cancer agents, but they also seem to
have a special affinity for such resistant cells,” according to a Purdue
News piece accompanying McLaughlin’s study.
Meanwhile, we’ll just have to be content with pounding paw-paw
pills--unless you are lucky enough to be able to visit the exotic climes
of northern Indiana and southern Michigan, and find yourself with an opportunity
to sample the fruit that the native peoples there have might offer you.
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