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Fruits

Cranberry

The 1935 edition of Folklore from Adams County, Illinois lists cranberries as a treatment for external cancer and the 1845 American Vegetable Practice lists cranberry poultice as used for a cancerous tumor in the cheek. The American eclectic dispensatory of 1854 lists cranberries as treatment for cancerous ulcers.

Elderberry

The extracts from leaves of the elder tree have been mentioned by Soranos in Ephesus in 2^nd century AD as treatment against scirrhous tumors in the hard uterus and mentioned by Roger of Salemo in the 12^th century as boiled in red wine to treat ‘cancer of the fleshy parts’.

An ointment made from the leaves of the elder tree were a Baden folk remedy for tumors of the thigh. There are records of the berries from the elder tree being used against cancer of the stomach in Chile.

The roots of the elder tree as an extraction were used to treat tumors according to Matthaeus d.1161 and an ointment made from the roots was used against sclerosis of the spleen and liver and tumors according to Nicholas of Salerno in the 12^th century.

Mulberry

Marcus Empiricus referred to the juice of the mulberry plant being incorporated into an ointment for treatment of cancer of the mouth.

Constantinus Africanus was a medical translator and Benedictine monk in the 11^th century. He translated various Arabian manuscripts and helped introduce ancient Greek medicine to Christian Europe. He also mentioned the juice of mulberry fruit, known as mora celse or mora matura, for cancer of the mouth.

Dioscorides was an ancient Greek physician, pharmacologist and botanist who practised at the time of Nero. He travelled extensively throughout the Roman world seeking medical substances. His 5 volume work is the precursor to all modern pharmacopeias. He mentions mulberries, known as sycomora, for the treatment of tumors of the spleen.

Peach, Plum, Prune

Nicholas Culpepper describes seed oil from plums as used against tumors. Abu Mansur refers to peach or chuch seed oil as used for tumors.

The leaves of peaches were used in native medicine for cancerous ulcers, according to Cazin, F. J., Paris, 1858. Nicholas Culpepper describes the fruit pulp of prunes being made into an electuary, or a paste, as treatment for cancer.

Quince

Quince fruit were used for treatment of tumors of the liver according to Dioscorides. Similarly quince known as malum cydoneum was used for tumors of the uterus according to Pliny the elder.

The quince flower mixed with water and honey, white wine and alum cerate (a type of salt) was used against cancer according to the Thesaurus Evonymi Philiatri published in London in 1552.

The quince seed made into a cerate, which is a hard paste applied to the skin directly or on dressings was used for cancer according to Kirby E.D., Violets and Cancer, Brit Med J, 1902.

Strawberry

Rufinus, the Bolgnese physician of the 14^th century, describes strawberry, or fragulla, transformed into an ointment for sclerosis of the spleen and liver and tumors.

A Russian publication in 1953 describes extracts from the leaves of strawberries used for cancer of the larynx. (Shishova N.I.)

A physicians book published in Wales in 1861, the Meddygon Myddfai, describes the strawberry leaf being made into an ungent, or ointment, for the treatment of cancer.

Fraise mixed with water was used against open cancer according to Les Remedes Charitables de Madame Fouquet, 1685.

Fragola, or wild cherries, were mixed into a pomade, or ointment, for inflammatory tumors, according to Scotti G., Flora Medica della Provincia di Como, 1872.