Vitamin B17 is found in tubers, berries, nuts, leafy greens, and in the pits of fruits like cherries, peaches, and apricots.

Most of you probably haven’t heard about it, and that is due to the fact that the vitamin B17 supplements are illegal in North America.

The active compound of this vitamin is Amygdalin, while its synthetic (manufactured) form is laetrile. The latter has been used as an alternative cancer treatment until 1980 when the FDA banned it, due to the cyanide, a known poison, it contains.

Yet, before it was made illegal, laetrile was analyzed at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

The Assistant Director of Public Affairs at the time, Ralph Moss, became a vocal author and lecturer on alternative cancer therapies. He reveals his findings in an interview:

 “Shortly after I went to work [at Sloan Kettering], I visited the elderly Japanese scientist, Kanematsu Sugiura, who astonished me when he told me he was working on Laetrile (B17). At the time it was the most controversial thing in cancer, reputed to be a cure for cancer.

We in Public Affairs were giving out statements that laetrile was worthless, it was quackery, and that people should not abandon proven therapies.

I was astonished that our most distinguished scientist would be bothering with something like this, and I said, ‘Why are you doing this if it doesn’t work?’

He took down his lab books and showed me that in fact, Laetrile was dramatically effective in stopping the spread of cancer…We were finding this and yet we in Public Affairs were told to issue statements to the exact opposite of what we were finding scientifically.”

His findings resulted in controversy around laetrile and expanded to include the natural form of amygdalin found in plants, vitamin B17.

These statements made his employers fire him, but he continued warning the public about the practice of the medical establishment to suppress research into natural cancer treatments.

Numerous other experts agreed with him, and one of them is G. Edward Griffin—an author, film-maker, and advocate for natural cancer treatment. He published a book under the title World Without Cancer with Dr. John Richardson, where he claims:

“Every Laetrile study had been tarnished with the same kind of scientific ineptitude, bias, and outright deception… Some of these studies openly admitted evidence of anti-cancer effect but hastened to attribute this effect to other causes.

Some were toxicity studies only, which means that they weren’t trying to see if Laetrile was effective, but merely to determine how much of it was required to kill the patient.” (Ibid.)

Apparently, amygdalin contains cyanide in the form of a cyanogenic glucoside of the nitriloside family of water-soluble sugar compounds found in plants.

Researchers have found that it actually inhibits cancer cell growth and leads to cell apoptosis (death) in prostate, kidney, and breast cancer cells.

Cancer cells have an enzyme known as glucosidase at 3,000 times the level in a healthy cell, which, when comes into contact with a nitriloside, causes a chemical reaction which converts the nitriloside into hydrogen cyanide and benzaldehyde. The cyanide destroys the cell. What is best about his all is that healthy cells do not contain enough glucosidase to release the cyanide, so amygdalin kills abnormal cells only.

The fact that we eat foods that contain amygdalin all the time, like blueberries, indicates that it is not harmful in small doses.

Bitter almonds are high in this compound. Yet, the trees from which they grow are illegal in the United States, even though essential oil extracts can be made from their seeds. Sweet almonds are also rich in amygdalin, and they are also banned to be sold raw.

“In 2007, the USDA [United States Department of Agriculture] mandated that all U.S. grown almonds be pasteurized (heated) or, for non-organic almonds, gassed with the toxic gas propylene oxide (PPO), a probable human carcinogen.

Almonds treated with PPO are banned in Canada and the European Union but allowed, even encouraged by the ban, in the US. Don’t be fooled if you’ve seen U.S. almonds labeled ‘raw’.

The USDA allows almond growers and processors to label almonds as ‘raw’ even though they’ve been pasteurized or gassed…Pasteurization destroys enzymes and valuable phytonutrients and lowers vitamin E content.” [emphasis added]

The richest seed in B17 is the apricot. Therefore, you can purchase apricots and break open their pits. High amounts of this nutrient tax the liver, but you need to have 50-60 seeds daily in order to experience any negative side-effects.

Furthermore, the Western medical community is still skeptical about the cancer-fighting properties of the vitamin. Plus, it is still illegal, mainstream media regards its medicinal use quackery, so very little money is invested into further research.

In his book, Griffin’s comments:

“I think it’s important for people to understand that government, in most cases, is not the solution; it’s the problem. As long as people think that the government is supposed to take care of them and protect them and that they can trust their politicians–as long as they think that, they’re in deep trouble. And, in fact, we are all in deep trouble because of that kind of thinking.”

Sources:
dailyhealthpost.com
draxe.com