For a while now, many people have been promoting the consumption of soursop as a means to kill cancer cells. The claim is that soursop works better than chemotherapy as some cancerous cells are resistant to chemo treatments. The question is, are soursop fruits really a cure for cancer and a better alternative to chemotherapy for cancer patients?
The soursop fruit – a miracle cure for cancer?
If you do a search on the internet on this topic, you are likely to find many sources that stand by the goodness of soursop to help cancer patients battle cancer instead of undergoing chemotherapy. Besides the fresh fruit itself, there are also many types of soursop supplements in the market. Do they really work?
Here’s a short article posted on Cancer Research UK’s website on the use of soursop to help cure cancer:
Can graviola cure cancer?
Graviola is something that comes from a tree in the rain forests of Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia. Its scientific name is Annona muricata. It is also known as cherimoya, guanabana, soursop, custard apple, and brazilian paw paw. In many countries, people use the bark, leaves, root, and fruits of this tree for traditional remedies. The active ingredient is thought to be a type of plant compound (phytochemical) called annonaceous acetogenins.
People in African and South American countries have used graviola to treat infections with viruses or parasites, rheumatism, arthritis, depression, and sickness. We know from research that some graviola extracts can help to treat these conditions.
In laboratory studies, graviola extracts can kill some types of liver and breast cancer cells that are resistant to particular chemotherapy drugs. But there haven’t been any large scale studies in humans. So we don’t know yet whether it can work as a cancer treatment or not. Overall, there is no evidence to show that graviola works as a cure for cancer. Many sites on the internet advertise and promote graviola capsules as a cancer cure, but none of them are supported by any reputable scientific cancer organisations.
We know very little about how graviola affects the body. But we do know it can cause nerve changes, causing symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease. So it may have harmful side effects for some people. Always talk to your doctor before taking any kind of complementary or alternative therapy.Graviola costs more than £5 for 100 capsules. The manufacturers advise taking 2 capsules, 3 to 4 times a day. So 100 capsules could last less than 2 weeks.
We do not support the use of graviola to treat cancer. Our advice is to be very cautious about believing information or paying for any type of alternative cancer therapy on the internet. You may find it useful to read our section on searching for information on the internet.
Whatever you read and have been recommended by well-meaning family members and friends, do a quick check, especially on reliable sites. Get to know the full picture before you think the majority should be right.
{ 39 comments… read them below or add one }
I personnaly think sour sop is an effective herb for various kinds of diseases. Since I was a child growing up in the West Indies my mom gave us bush you call it tree and boiled it into tea and it did help. We hardly visited the doctor. In North America we kee[ running to doctors, and they scare us more than anything else and cause us to worry thereby getting us so nervous they we get stressed then we develop other complications. They do not explain anything, the first thing they do is write a prescriptions to cause us more symtons.
You said always always talk to the doctors. Question to you as i said in the West Indies, our parents gave us bush to drink and we were healed, we did not go to doctors, and I am still alive. My dad often caught fishes at the sea, we had omega 3 continuous. Thx
Can I get GRAVIOLA in Illinois? Would anyone be able to send the fruit, the leaves and whatever comes with it?
This Fruit is a very delicious fruit, it may have many healing purposes, but one of thing i can attest to is that it is indeed delicious. One of the ways to use it is to make sakes with it , but my favorite is to eat it raw.
Great blog.
i live in Jamaica we have sour sop here and many more amazing fruits/veg. listen to Dr. Vendyes on power 106 FM on Fridays (i believe you can listen to it in the UK & US or on the internet). he was the first person that made my family and i change our diet to a healthy life style and trust me it does help to cure or better still prevent us getting sick.
I found the fruit now I need to know what is the best way to eat it/drink it other than alcoholic beverages. Someone mentioned that you should not mix it with other fruits or vegetables (ie. juicing) because it will curd. Also, they mentioned to use condensed milk, I don’t drink milk, so any suggestions out there would be appreciated…
Thanks!
Hi Loga I am sending a article pl. read it.
This fruit is good for cancer patients
The soursop fruit _ a miracle cure for cancer
I am a 10 year girl living in Brooklyn,NY. My dream is to find a cure for cancer. I think that the soursop fruit is a possibility for a cure for cancer.
Hi all, just need some advice.
Does soursop really kill cancer cells.
Is it ok to just blend the flesh of the fruit mix with water nad drink it?
Whether or not soursop can prevent or cure cancer I will be making sure I include it in my diet. It is a wonderful creamy-sweet white-fleshed fruit. My Mum used to make ice cream with it when I was a child and it is delicious in any form! I think I have seen soursop juice selling in cans on supermarket shelfs, so maybe if you don’t live in the Caribbean, you could try looking for this in your local supermarket or Caribbean specialty store.
Wheter or not soursop kills cancer cells , it’s a sweet delicious fruit. you can find it in all south America, from Mexico to CHile or you could try looking for this in local supermarkets in the USA and Canada .It is easy and natural way .
This so interesting. My Jamaican mother-in-law has a tree in her yard, I will surely add this to my diet!
You can buy the leaves on Ebay!
Dear Reader
While a lot have been said about the goodness of Soursop/Graviola. No one has actually state whether this fruit or other parts of the plant has been used successfully to treat cancer, except reports from National Cancer Institute, Prudue University and Catholic University of South Korea that has done some lab test on cancer cells.
Since this extract can kill cancer cell in the lab , can we also infer that the same extract will kill the cancer cell in the body -except the qty of the extract that we need to put into our body is not established. Any one who is knowledgeable enough to give an educated qty is appreciated here. Thanks
The fruit and the leaves are good for improving the nerves.
The fruit can be blended with lime to make a great drink, especially for persons intolerant to milk
Many fruits are good for keeping the body healthy. What do you think would happen if you changed all that junk food for a slice of fruit every day? You wouldn’t have to go and see a doctor as often as you do. Your kidneys, your lungs, liver and other organs would be younger and would work in a better way.
Best regards: Luis Padua from the Dominican Republic.
One of my favorite fruits is Pineapple. I think it can cure anything if eaten regularly.
I have a soursop tree in my yard here in Jamaica. I believe what Jethro Kloss in “Back to Eden”says that cancer cannot servive in fresh fruits but thrives in sugar, meaning eat lots of fresh fruits(not tablets) and stay away from products containing refined sugar. I have heard about helping nerves and I believe it would heal cancer given enough. The fruit is quite large so it sould be eaten that day or made into a juice with fresh lime and honey.
its really good to get the soursop, cures cancer however am not sure, i do believe from the research i did that it is very good, but to get it fresh from tresss, etc preserved , and tin foods are a NO NO!, taking the soursop from that may better you in one point or another but certainly tin foods will do alot more damage soo, best you get the fresh natural one or none at all
I don’t know who the author of this article TIPSIE is? Neither is his/her claim that Graviola causes nerve changing effects similar to Parkingson supported by scientific research. Natural fruits by God, unlike man-made drugs, do not in general cause illnesses. This fruit and the drinks made out of it is being sold widely. If it has harmful effects as this author claims, this would have been discovered and the public warned and products withdrawn. I suggest we try eating the fruit and drinking its juice. I suspect big drug and pharmaceutical companies do not want to carry out research on Graviola because natural products cannot be patented. There’s no money in it. It’s curative effect on cancer, if any, is antithetical to their money making goals.
Hi ,
Would like to know if Soursop fruit is avilable in Dubai ( UAE)
Hi All,
I read so many site on soursop and all says that it can cure cancer. Is there any proof so far that the fruit or the leave has cured cancer or killed cancer cell in human.
Hope someone out there can give me an answer so that i too can spread this goodness to others who are in need of a cure.
leaves are the best thing that has ever happened to me.
listen to the Dr.
Soursop is one of my favorite fruits. I think all these people will say that there are a lot of cons if we use this fruit to treat cancer. This is one of the techniques to monopolize the medicine/treatments for cancer.
I think we should get more studies to conclude if this can cure cancer. Either way, i love this fruit and I think it is healthy food to eat. God will not create a fruit that will not be usable for human either it can help us to survive or cure us.
Se dice que es malo para los nervios;porque en Guadalupe(caribe),hay muchisiiima gente con Parkinson disease, luego de varias investigaciones (more than 3 years), pruebas ,analisis,etc..;dicen que si una persona consume Guanabana continuamente -means- diariamente, por mas de 2 years consecutivos tiene mas del 85% de probabilidades, que sus nervios sean afectados. Iam from South America y en mi pais Ecuador se da two times a year.
I just want to share my experience with soursop with everyone.My daughter who is 27 got breast cancer she had 3 large tumors in her left breast and one under her left arm.We got lots of advice and cancer cure suggestionsone of which was soursop tea.So after much inquirey I found a family close by with a soursop tree and they gave me leaves and branches so I smahed the branches a little washed everything and boiled the tea about 15 minutes.She drank about 2 to 3 cups a day without sugar or honey,by the way she cut out all lactose and sugars.After her first quimo the doctors claimed the tumors had shrunk a little.just before her second quimo she started the tea, before the third quimo all we could feel was what felt was a lump the size of a little marble.Did I mention the tumors in her breasts were like various sizes of eggs the same under her arm.By the fourth quimo we weren´t sure we cuold feel anything.The doctor said everything is going great but I could see bemusement in his eyes.My daughter called him and told him she didn´t want anymore quimo because she couldn´t feel anything he said she should calm down and get a mamagram and a sonagram.She went to the same doctor that did the original test and she said she cuoldn´t believe it there was nothing there.She will still be opprated on because that´s the protocol.I just want to say there is no doubt in our minds that the sour sop tea got rid of her tumors.but I do have some questions,if anyone out there knows how long you should continue to drink the tea before you know you are cured,and for imformation to others will the tea help no matter how far along you are.One more thing I was concerned about liver damage drinking this tea without having a dosage guide line,but there was no evidence of that.If there are any doctors out there who have that info I´m sure we´d all like to know.You all have my email address if you have any questions I´d be glad to answer to the best of my knowledge.
I read so much on sour sop.
Would somebody be able to guide as to where one can get this fruit in Mumbai or in India?
Thanks
I am punished suffering liver cancer. Based CT Scan, on 80% of one of my liver plates covered by this tumor. No surgery to be done due to blooding risk. Doctor decided to treat me taking 12x of chemotherapy. I just passed two times. In between I take soursop leave tea, I take it fresh from the tree. 3 times a day. Next week I will take 3rd chemo, including CEA blood test to observe the effect of the previous two.
Hope my combine efforts give me healing.
in my country indonesia, we can found soursoup fruit every where. we call it sirsak. it’s real delicious fruit. you can just eat it, or serve it as juice. but unfortunately not much people here knew it’s function to cure any disease.
good to hear from everyone …May God our Lord will make this plant tree effective on curing cancer especially breast cancer.
I have the trees in my house here in Hawai’i I love the taste of the fruit. I never knew about the leaves. Please the people who have made the tea with the leaves, tell me how many to use and how to boil the bush for tea Thank you,
Antoinette
Soursop aka graviola is indeed a potent alternative treatment for several type of cancers. I am living proof of this. I am a breast cancer survivor and soursop was my herb of choice. When I was told of it, I did not take any ones word for granted. I got out there and did my research. Several clinical research were done which supported the fact that it works. And people, the part of the tree which is used for the treatment of cancers are the leaves, and it is not boiled. Boiling destroys some of the potent properties.Instead an infusion made by pouring boiling water over ground or powdered leaves and allowing to sit/steep for about 10-15 min. I used to grind about 15-17 fresh leaves then pour the boiling water over it. Soursop leaves can also be made into a tincture which I made and use because of the convenience. The entire soursop tree: leaves, twigs, bark, root and fruit are totally safe to use. The only toxicity concern are with the seeds, since not enough research were done on them.And people, one final thing, when treating cancer a holistic approach must be taken. Cancer is mostly a life style disease, so understand, once you get cancer you must of necessity change the way you do things, even after you are cured, to stay cured. The website above is where I started my research. That would be a good place for you to start too. Any one who would like to contact me on this matter may do so at my email address above.
Dear Madeline.
I refer to your comment on 16/8/2010 pertaining to Soursop as an alternative to chemo treatment. I like to know the following:
1. Did you have breast surgery before embarking on soursop treatment.
2. You mention about infusion by pouring boiling water over the gounded up leaves. Are the leaves you use fresh or dried ones.
3. How often or how many cups do you drink the tea?
4. Are you staying in a country where you can get fresh Soursop leaves? If not how and where do you obtain the leaves?
5. Do you restrict yourself on certain type of foods that may reduce the effectiveness of soursop?
6. Do you know of any other type of food that can be combined with soursop to improve the effectiveness against cancer.
I appreciate any help/advise and your reply because my wife is battling breast cancer now. We have refused conventional treatment – i.e surgery, chemo etc.
Hope to here from you. My email is norman.chai@yahoo.com
Thank you.
Dear, Madeline
Seconded Norman Chai. I am interested on your sharing.
I suffer liver cancer. Tomorrow will be my 4th chemo. After that it will be an evaluation to decide whether I should get surgery to pick up that cancer tumor.
In between chemo treatment, I drink soursop leave tea, pick up freshly from the tree at my garden.
I live in Bandar Lampung city, Lampung Province, Indonesia, South East Asia. This is my email: G.Pasya@gmail.com.
Thanks you so much,
Warmly yours,
Gamal
I’m glad this posting has encouraged more people to share their experience and knowledge. Definitely appreciate those who are able to share for the benefit of others. Thank you.
im a cancer patient, can someone tell me how much and how often should i take soursop.
as advanced i cancer, how much and how often do i need to take sousop.
i have breast cancer,and im interested with madeline’s living proof that her daughter responded well with soursop tea.i would like to ask if her daughter is not experiencing any signs and symptoms of parkinson’s disease,that is affecting nerves in the brain,based from my research in the internet.tnx