Lemongrass | Lemon Grass, a Miracle Plant that Cures Cancer?

Lemon grass is locally known to Filipinos as tanglad.  It’s the discovery about lemon grass and its healing effect for cancer patients.

Cymbopogon (lemongrass) is a genus of about 55 species of grasses, native to warm temperate and tropical regions of the Old World and Oceania. It is a tall perennial grass. It is popularly known as lemon grass, lemongrass, barbed wire grass, silky heads, citronella grass, fever grass or Hierba Luisa.

Lemon grass is native to India. It is widely used as a herb in Asian cuisine. It has a citrus flavor and can be dried and powdered, or used fresh.

Lemon grass is commonly used in teas, soups, and curries. It is also suitable for poultry, fish, and seafood. It is often used as a tea in African and Latin American countries (e.g., Togo, Mexico, DR Congo).

Research also shows that lemon grass oil has anti-fungal properties.

Citronella Grass (Cymbopogon nardus and Cymbopogon winterianus) is similar to the species above but grows to 2 m and has red base stems. These species are used for the production of citronella oil, which is used in soaps, as a insect repellent in insect sprays and candles, and also in aromatherapy, which is famous in Bintan, Indonesia. The principal chemical constituents of citronella, geraniol and citronellol, are antiseptics, hence their use in household disinfectants and soaps. Besides oil production, citronella grass is also used for culinary purposes, in tea and as a flavoring.

Lemon Grass Oil, used as a pesticide and preservative, is put on the ancient manuscripts found in India in Oriental Research Institute Mysore . The lemon grass oil also injects natural fluidity into the brittle palm leaves and the hydrophobic nature of the oil keeps the manuscripts dry so that the text is not lost to decay due to humidity.

An article written by Allison Kaplan Sommer says that Benny Zabidov, an Israeli agriculturalist who grows greenhouses full of lush spices on a pastoral farm in Kfar Yedidya in the Sharon region, couldn’t understand why so many cancer patients from around the country were showing up on his doorstep asking for fresh lemon grass. These unexpected visitors were told to drink eight glasses of hot water with fresh lemongrass steeped in it on the days that they went for their radiation and chemotherapy treatments.

It all began when researchers at Ben Gurion University of the Negev discovered last year that the lemon aroma in herbs like lemon grass kills cancer cells in vitro, while leaving healthy cells unharmed.

The research team was led by Dr. Rivka Ofir and Prof. Yakov Weinstein, incumbent of the Albert Katz Chair in Cell-Differentiation and Malignant Diseases, from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at BGU.

Citral is the key component that gives the lemony aroma and taste in several herbal plants such as lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus), Melissa (Melissa officinalis) and verbena (Verbena officinalis.)

According to the study found that citral causes cancer cells to ’commit suicide: using apoptosis, a mechanism called programmed cell death.’

A drink with as little as one gram of lemon grass contains enough citral toprompt the cancer cells to commit suicide in the test tube. The BGU investigators checked the influence of the citral on cancerous cells by adding them to both cancerous cells and normal cells that were grown in a petri dish. The quantity added in the concentrate was equivalent to the amount contained in a cup of regular tea using one gram of lemon herbs in hot water. While the citral killed the cancerous cells, the normal cells remained unharmed.

The findings were published in the scientific journal Planta Medica, which highlights research on alternative and herbal remedies. Shortly afterwards, the discovery was featured in the popular Israeli press. Why does it work? Nobody knows for certain, but the BGU scientists have a theory.

In each cell in our body, there is a genetic program which causes programmed cell death. When something goes wrong, the cells divide with no control and become cancer cells. In normal cells, when the cell discovers that the control system is not operating correctly – for example, when it recognizes that a cell contains faulty genetic material following cell division it triggers cell death,’ explains Weinstein. This research may explain the medical benefit of these herbs. The success of their research led them to the conclusion that herbs containing citral may be consumed as a preventative measure against certain cancerous cells.

As they learned of the BGU findings in the press, many physicians in Israel began to believe that while the research certainly needed to be explored further, in the meantime it would be advisable for their patients, who were looking for any possible tool to fight their condition, to try to harness the cancer-destroying properties of citral. That’s why Zabidov’s farm – the only major grower of fresh lemon grass in Israel – has become a pilgrimage destination for these patients. Luckily, they found themselves in sympathetic hands. Zabidov greets visitors with a large kettle of aromatic lemon grass tea, a plate of cookies, and a supportive attitude.

How to grow Lemon Grass?

The father inlucidng his wife’s sister of Zabidov were died of cancer. ‘So I understand what they are dealing with. And I may not know anything about medicine, but I’m a good listener.And so they tell me about their expensive painful treatments and what they’ve been through. I would never tell them to stop being treated, but it’s great that they are exploring alternatives and drinking the lemon grass tea as well’  Zabidov testifies.

Zabidov knew from a young age that agriculture was his calling. At age 14, he enrolled in the Kfar Hayarok Agricultural high school. After his army service, he joined an idealistic group which headed south, in the Arava desert region, to found a new moshav (agricultural settlement) called Tsofar.

One time while Wandering in the Paris market, looking at the variety of herbs and spices, Zabidov realized that there was a great export potential in this niche. He then brought samples back home with him, which was technically illegal, to see how they would grow in his desert greenhouses. And soon enough, they were growing basil, oregano, tarragon, chives, sage, marjoram and melissa, and mint just to name a few.

It came to a point where this kind of business began to outgrow his desert facilities, and decided to move north, settling in the moshav of Kfar Yedidya, an hour and a half north of Tel Aviv. As of this writing he is now selling ’several hundred kilos’ of lemon grass per week, and has signed with a distributor to package and put it in health food stores.

Being open minded person, Zabidov has taken it upon himself to learn more about the properties of citral, and help his customers learn more, and has invited medical experts to his farm to give lectures about how the citral works and why.

The responsibility to know what to tell his customers about it is another concern for Zabidov. He then called and called Dr. Weinstein at Ben-Gurion University , because these people were asking him exactly the best way to consume the citral. The doctor responded by saying ‘put the loose grass in hot water, and drink about eight glasses each day.’

It’s a pleasing experience for Zabidov by the findings, not simply because it means more business for his farm, but because it’s more of might influence there own health especially that they have a history of cancer illnesses . In fact before the news of its benefits were demonstrated, he and his family had been drinking lemon grass in hot water for years, just because it tastes good.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.