Vitamin B17/Laetrile/Amygdalin (a Review) Marinela ENCULESCU Research & Development Institute for Bovine Breeding–Balotesti Sos. Bucuresti-Ploiesti, km. 21, Ilfov, 077015 Balotesti, Romania marinelaenculescu2006@yahoo.com Abstract.
Vitamin B 17 is a natural substance whose anti-cancer properties have been known empirically for many years, but in the last twenty years they have been scientifically proven. It was co-discovered by Ernst T Krebs, Jr. in 1952 called it Laetrile.
Vitamin B 17 is found in the seeds of those fruits in the Prunus rosacea Family (bitter almond, apricot, cherry, nectarin, peach and plum). It is also contained in grasses, maize, sorghum, millet, cassava, apple seeds and many other foods. Dr Krebs and other researchers maintain that cancer is a chronic metabolic disease, like scurvy or pellagra. This review contains the mechanism of action by vitamin B17 and anticancer activity to humans and animal. Keywords: cancer, apricot of kernels, rhodanese, beta-glucosidase, pancreatic enzymes, trophoblast cell
INTRODUCTION Vitamin B17/Laetrile/Amygdalin is one of the most controversial vitamin in the last 30 years. It is simply a concentrated form of Nitriloside. There are 3 names which are interchangeable being Vitamin B17, Laetrile and Amygdalin. Vitamin B17 was extracted from the kernels of apricots by a biochemist named Ernst T Krebs Jr. He also called it Laetrile which is simply short for Laevo-mandelonitrile and was awarded its vitamin status officially in 1952. But the systematised study of Vitamin B17 began when the chemist Bohn (1802) discovered that during the distillation of the water from bitter almonds hydrocyanic acid was released.
In 1830 two French chemists, isolated a crystalline amygdalin from the bitter almond, Amygdalus communis Linnaeus, now known as Prunus amygdalus Batsch, of the rose family Rosaceae (Robiquet and Boutron, 1830). Either way all 3 are essentially the same thing. Antitumour action was known empirically for many years, but in the last thirty five years has been scientifically proven by more researchers with equally impeccable credentials (Griffin, 1974).
Various documents from the oldest civilizations such as Egyptat the time of the Pharaihs and from China 2.500 years before Christ mention the therapeutic use of derivatives of bitter almonds. Egyptian papyri from 5000 years ago mention the use of aqua amigdalorum for the treatment of some tumours of the skin (Contreras, 1980). The Greeks and Romans also attributed therapeutic properties to that extract in low doses.
Chemically, it is cyanogenic diglucoside, with a condensed formula C20H27NO11, with a molecular weight of 457,42g moll-1, a chemical name of D (1) Mandelonetrile-betaglucoside-6 beta-D-glucoside (J. Yan et al., 2006). Vitamin B17 had the following formula. Chemical structure of amygdalin.
Foods that contain vitamin B17 (June de Spain, 1976) are as follows: - Kernels or seeds of fruit: The highest concentration of vitamin B17 to be found in nature, aside from bitter almonds, apricot, apple, cherry, nectarine, peach, pear, plum etc; - - - Beans: broad (Vicia faba), burma, lentils (sprouted), lima, mung (spruted), rangoon; Nuts: bitter almond, macadamia, cashew; Berries: almost all wild berries-blackberry, chokeberry, christmas berry, cranberry, elderberry, raspberry, strawberry; - Seeds: chia, flax, sesame; - - Grasses: acacia, alfalfa (spruted), wheat grass, white dover. Grains: oat groats, barley, brown rice, buckwheat groats, millet, sorghum, rye, wheat berries.
There are isolated tribes and peoples around the world who do not have cancer. These include the Abkhazians, the Hopi and Navajo Indians, the Hunzas, the Eskimos and the Karakorum. They have in common a diet rich in vitamin B17.
HOW VITAMIN B17 KILLS CANCER? According to research conducted by Ernest T. Krebs Jr. the mechanism of action is following: our body has one particular enzyme called Rhodanese found everywhere in the body except at the cancer cells, and the enzyme Beta-Glucosidase found in very large quantities only at the cancer cell but not found anywhere else in the body. If there is no cancer in the body there is no enzyme Beta-Glucosidase.
Vitamin B17 is made up of 2 parts glucose, 1 part Hydrogen Cyanide and 1 part Benzaldehyde (analgesic/painkiller). When B17 is introduced to the body, it is broken down by the enzyme Rhodanese. The Rhodanese breaks the Hydrogen Cyanide and Benzaldehyde down into 2 by-products, Thiocyanate and Benzoic acid which are beneficial in nourishing healthy cells and forms the metabolic pool production for vitamin B12.
When the B17 comes into contact with cancer cells, there is no Rhodanese to break it down and neutrelise it but instead, only the enzyme Beta-Gucosidase is present in very large quantities. When B17 and Beta-Glucosidase come into contact with each other, a chemical reaction occurs and the Hydrogen Cyanide and Benzaldehyde combine synergistically to produce a poison which destroys and kills the cancer cells.
This whole process is known as selective toxicity. Only the cancer cells are specifically targeted and destroyed (Griffin, 1974).
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