Cancer, Black Lilies, and Palestinians in Kansas

One of the very best things about being a Master Gardener is having easy access to cutting edge information from the plant world.  In today's monthly meeting, we heard from a local grower of Arum Palaestinum, a plant from Palestine which has shown remarkable health benefits for those who use it medicinally.  The wild Jack-in-the-Pulpit and the houseplant Peace Lily are both related to Arum Palaestinum, which is sometimes referred to as the Black Lily.  the plant grows wild in Palestine and has been used in folk medicine for centuries.  In Kansas, it must be grown in greenhouses because it's "too hot and too cold" outdoors here, as the grower told us.  It grows well only in very well-drained soil, but commercial potting soil is fine as long as it's not overwatered. 

All parts of the plant contain beneficial compounds, but coming into direct contact with or ingesting any part of it without first heating it is extremely irritating to the human body, due to oxylate saponins.  It needs to be "baked" first--that is, heated to a certain temperature and held there for a specified length of time.  

Right now, the main Black Lily product offered for sale is being sold as a food supplement called Afaya Plus.  Other nutritional products are included with the Black Lily substances, and the combination is sold in capsule form--for a price in the range of 65 dollars to $90.00 for 60 capsules--up to a month's supply.  As a nutritional product (i.e. food supplement), no claims can be made by company representatives about its ability to "treat, cure, or mitigate" any disease.  Anecdotally, people who have used Black Lily products report amazing improvements  for a variety of conditions, most notably, cancer.  I understand that several Facebook pages contain personal experience accounts.  I know that other such accounts have appeared in feature stories in our local newspaper.   

It's probably significant that several pharmaceutical companies  are busy trying to create duplicates of the Black Lily compounds in their labs.  Since no naturally occurring substances can be patented, creating an "artificial" version is the only lucrative path forward for a pharmaceutical company.  

Hyatt Life Sciences is the parent company that makes Afaya Plus. Genzada Pharmaceuticals is the name of another related company.  Did I mention that these are local companies?  When I was in college in Sterling, Kansas I learned to know the younger brother of this company's founder.  He had attended a Christian high school in the area and then came to live with family members in Sterling after he graduated.  The family had immigrated fairly recently from Palestine, and the founder of the company set up shop in Sterling.  He is a chemist who developed many products that were used in oil fields. The founder's name has undergone several iterations, and Najib Zaid now has become either Gene Zaid or Gene West.  His sons use "West" as their last name.  

I feel caution about seeming to over-hype any product, but I will say that if I or a loved one was suffering from cancer, I think I would seriously consider taking Afaya Plus.  No major red flags developed in terms of deleterious side effects when it was tested in higher and higher doses in dogs.  Instead, increased dosages seemed to result in more health improvements.  Obviously, you would want to learn more than I've said here if you were needing help with a health condition.  I'll leave some links here that might help you get started with learning.

Hyatt Life Sciences homepage.  Click on the three lines in the upper left hand corner for a menu that takes you to other pages.

This is the pharmaceutical company that is specifically working on cancer treatments: Genzada Pharmaceuticals.

This is a Facebook page that has a few "testimonies" from people who have taken Afaya Plus.

Facebook Page for Hyatt Life Sciences.

Genzada Pharmaceuticals has a Facebook Page here.

Purchase page for Afaya Plus.