GRAVIOLA / GUYABANO RESEARCH
     (Annona Muricata) 

For a long time the fruit, leaves and bark from the tropical Guyabano tree have been used as a natural medicine for many illnesses. And now it also seems to be a natural cancer cell killer.

The GRAVIOLA / GUYABANO Tree

The Guyabano tree (latin name: Annona muricata) is a low-branching and bushy but slender tree, which can reach a height of 7.5-9 m. The large evergreen leaves are smooth and glossy and have a dark green upper surface. The fruits are usually oval or heart-shaped and 10-30 cm long and up to 15 cm in width. The skin of the fruit is leathery and covered with curved, soft, pliable spines. When the tips of these spines can break off easily, then the fruit is ripe enough to eat. The inside of the fruit is cream-colored and is divided into segments. Closely-packed segments are seedless and other segments have a single oval, smooth, hard black seed. One piece of large fruit can contain a dozen to 200 seeds or even more. 

It tastes slightly acidic and it is used as food in different ways. For example you can spoon the flesh out or make sherbets and drinks out of it. From the leaves you can make tea.

The Guyabano tree is a tropical tree found in the warmest tropical areas in North and South America, in the Amazon and in Asia.

Since 1950, we have led the effort to permanently protect nearly 110 million acres of wilderness. We have been at the forefront of nearly every major public lands victory.

Natural medicine

The bark, leaves, fruit, roots, and fruit seeds of the Guyabano tree know a long history of many medicinal uses.

-     The fruit and juice is used against worms and parasites, to cool down fevers, to increase mother’s milk after childbirth. It can also be used for diarrhea or inflammation in the bowels as a drying agent.

-  The seeds can be crushed and then used against internal or external parasites, head lice, and worms.

-     The leaves are used as a sedative and a soporific (inducer of sleep) in the West Indies and Peruvian Andes when drank as a tea. This infusion is also used to relief pain or for antispasmodic purposes. For liver problems a leaf tea is used in the Brazilian Amazon. 

-         The roots and bark can be of aid for diabetes, but can also be used as a sedative.

As you can see there are many uses of the Guyabano tree. These are just a few ways how the Guyabano tree can be of aid in your health. Next to all of these uses, it now also seems to help against cancer. Research has found many biologically active compounds in the Guyabano tree, and one of these compounds is able to destroy cancer cells.

The cure for cancer may lies in a tree

The Guyabano tree consists of many chemicals, but what makes the Guyabano tree special is that this tree contains a natural compound named ‘acetogenins’. Research has found that this compound can slow the growth of tumor cells and be toxic to tumor cells without harming healthy cells. Especially the latter is a problem of recent anticancer drugs. Chemotherapy kills growing cells, bad (the cancer cells) and good (the healthy cells). The best cure for cancer is a product that can target only the cancer cells. And this is just exactly what the natural compound found in the Guyabano tree does.

The tree produces these ‘acetogenins’ in the leaves, stem and bark. What you can do is drink the extracts of the tree and this may help you fight against cancer. 
 

Chemical compound

What everyone would like is to make these acetogenins in big quantities, to help everyone. However, the natural ‘acetogenins’ are very complex in structure and is not easily to make by chemists. To make it easier to produce large amounts of this medicine, research has been done to find the active parts of the compound against cancer. If the active parts can be found, the medicine would be easier to produce and be more available to everyone. Unfortunately, scientists have not been able to find the active parts of the Guyabano tree.

Until then, you can turn to the natural acetogenins and drink the tea, juice or use the supplements. 

How does it work?

Oberlies et al (1995) researched the capability of acetogenins to block, or inhibit, the cell growth of tumor cells. They tested this on several cell types in vitro; cancerous cells from mice and humans as well as non-cancerous cells from the intestinal tract of rats. Results showed that the more acetogenins was added with the cancerous cells, the more the cell growth was blocked. In addition, the non-cancerous healthy cells were not affected by the acetogenins and the cell growth was not blocked. These findings can indicate that acetogenins can selectively block the cell growth of tumor cells, while the healthy cells remain unaffected with minimal toxicity by this compound.

In breast cancer the cancer gene ‘epidermal growth factor receptor’ (EGFR) is frequently overexpressed.  Therefore, this cancer gene is a possible target for breast cancer therapy. A study by Dai et al (2011) used a Guyabano fruit extract and the extract inhibited or blocked the expression of the EGFR gene and this resulted in an inhibition of 32% of the growth of breast cancer cells. The non-cancerous breast cells were not affected by the fruit extract.

In 1997 Oberlies et al researched the ability of the acetogenins to block the cell growth of specific tumor cells, adriamycin resistant human mammary adenocarcinoma cells. These breast tumor cells are resistant to treatment with adriamycin, vincristine and vinblastine. All three are anti-tumor drugs. Because these tumor cells can not be treated with the drugs, the tumor is called multidrug resistant (MDR). The research group used various acetogenins derived from the Guyabano. The ones with a specific structure (a stereochemistry of threo-trans-threo-trans-erythro) were the most potent acetogenin and had 250 times the potency of adriamycin. This indicates that acetogenins may have a chemotherapeutical potential, also against MDR tumors.

Natural Treatment vs. Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is incredibly invasive, costly and causes a variety of side effects, including:

• Hair loss
• Nausea and vomiting
• Mouth sores
• Loss of appetite
• Diarrhea
• Rashes, redness, or pain in the hands and feet
• Increased risk of infection
• Easily bruising or bleeding for minor injuries
• Fatigue
• Neuropathy
• Skin eruptions
• Cardiac issues
• Abnormal white blood cells
• Renal, ocular, and gastrointestinal disorders

The initial cancer killing evidence is there, and it is up to us to pressure the many “Cancer Research Non-Profits” to fund further studies, which can often cost tens of millions of dollars.

References

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