home | overview | EVIDENCE | arguments against | trophoblast theory | bibliography

my story | living with cancer | diet | contact us | links | site map | disclaimer

evidence

recent history

population studies

distant history

overview

almonds

beans – fava & lentil

seeds – flax & linseed

fruits

miscellaneous

research

overview

Binzel

Burk

Griffin

Manner

Richardson

miscellaneous

see distant history \ overview

Seeds

 Flax/Linseed

 Hippocrates, 460 – 370 BC, the Greek physician, is one of the outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He was the founder of the school of medicine which sought to separate practice from superstition and divine origin. He authored or collected numerous works. He discussed flax or linon as an emollient or ointment for indurations and hard tumors of the neck.

 Pliny the Elder referred to linseed with barley meal, with salt for tumors and linseed boiled in wine for inflamed tumors. Theodorus Priscianus described the use of linseed or linum as a paste for an ointment for glandular tumors.

 Alexander of Tralles (which is now in Turkey) was born in about 525 AD and practised medicine with success in Rome. He described flax seed used in an ointment for tumors of the parotid glands.

 Abu Mansur, the 10^th century Persian physician, wrote a book containg some 585 remedies, the majority of which were from plants. He describes the ‘bazr ul-kattan’ seed with honey and violet oil used for external tumors.

 Similarly Avicenna includes flax seed as an ointment or salve for the treatment of hard tumors. William Coles also refers to flax seeds for the treatment of tumors.

 The Botanicum Officinale was published in 1722 in London as a “Compendium Herbal, Giving An Account of all such plants as are now used in the Practice of Physick. With Their Descriptions and Virtues.” It includes linum or flax seed as an ointment for tumors.

 The New Family Herbal published in 1790 in Birmingham, England refers to flax seed used in poultices for inflammatory tumors. Similarly, Thornton’s Herbal of 1810 referred to flax seed oil for use on breast tumors.

 The American Medical Family Herbal published in 1814 in New York described flax seed oil as used on a cancerous lump on the breast.  The Botanic Physician published in 1830 in New York describes linseed oil used as a plater against cancer. The American Medical Association of 1922, in ‘Cancer, cures and treatments’ describes flax seed used as a paste against cancer.