Vitamin B17 has long been under debate in America. Banned from research in 1977, it was discovered that this vitamin produces a type of cyanide in the body. According to previous research done, prior to this ban, the cyanide that vitamin B17 produces, only affects cancerous cells. This is due largely in part to the fact that yet another enzyme created by the vitamin protects cells that are non-cancerous, and deactivates the cyanide’s affects on healthy cells. It would appear from this research that, in essence, this means that vitamin B17 is truly the only natural cancer killing substance. What Can We Do? Just because it is unlawful to prescribe vitamin B17 here in the United States, that does not mean that there is no way for you to get the amazing benefits of this vitamin in your system.

Many foods are rich in vitamin B17, and can be ingested daily without any ill effects. These include: spinach, apricot seeds, mung bean sprouts, and alfalfa sprouts. Vitamin B17 can also be found in foods such as watercress, and bamboo shoots. Eating a diet that includes vitamin B17 can help your body to naturally form cancer-fighting cells. Even without any additional vitamin B17 taken in supplements (which no longer exist), your body will automatically use the B17 found in the foods you eat to flush cancerous toxins from your system. The Chinese have known this for centuries, and have used B17 rich foods as a means for treating tumors for centuries. This is not to say that, if you have cancer, eating high doses of vitamin B17 will suddenly cure you. There are many who would have you to believe that eating apricot seeds while being treated for cancer will automatically rid your body of the disease. This simply isn’t so. There is, as of yet, no magical cure for cancer. But eating a diet that is rich in foods containing vitamin B17 can help to prevent your body from developing cancerous cells.

It is illegal for a doctor or physician to prescribe any type of vitamin B17 supplement; so if you are looking for advice on how to incorporate more of this vitamin into your system, you will have to look elsewhere for information. A nutritionist can tell you which foods contain vitamin B17, and the appropriate serving size of each of these foods you should eat to maintain your health. There is also a plethora of information regarding the benefits of vitamin B17 available on the web.

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Apricot kernels (Prunus armeniaca) are a good source of amygdaline. This controversial compound helps prevent cancer. It’s also known as vitamin B17 and laetrile.

My mother always puts a few apricot pits into her preserves for, she said, “The flavor.”  As a child, her logic was beyond my ken as apricot kernels are nastily bitter. Today, I take my hat off to mom and the perennial kitchen wisdom she still serves up. According to both Oriental Medicine and alternative medicine, these kernels are anti-carcinogenic.

In Chinese pharmacology, the pits are classified as a drug rather than as a food as they contains cyanide (hydrocyanic acid).  They’re used medicinally to combat cancer, stimulate respiration, improve digestion, help reduce blood pressure and arthritic pain and give a sense of well-being.

According to the Food and Drug Administration there is no scientifically accepted evidence of amygdaline’s efficacy. However, it’s commercially available as vitamin B17 and it continues to be used in cancer clinics outside of the United States.

The amygdaline content varies in apricots according to their variety and it is it chemically identical to that found in bitter almonds. The small or wild apricot native to Northern China and the Himalayas are higher in B17 than the apricot varieties available in the United States.

Similarly, the small seeds of wild apples (crab apples) and wild cherries (choke cherries) are superior sources of Vitamin B17. However, the larger seeds of today’s store-bought apricots, apples and cherries are less potent. Our culture’s taste preference is for sweet, so the bitter flavor was bred out of modern cultivars. As we’ve discovered, a little bit of bitter is a good thing. Today’s foods are overboard on sweet, but fall short of other valuable nutrients.

Mom also told us kids that we could taste an apricot kernel but never eat them; as, in quantity, they could be poisonous. Of course we tasted them, but they were so bitter we spit them out. When cooked or fermented, apricot toxicity is reduced.

Consumption of 10 or more wild apricot kernels or bitter almonds for children and 40 or more for adults may cause adverse reaction, even death.  Yet, bitter almonds are an essential ingredient in authentic marzipan and amaretto. Both the confection and the liqueur are predominately made of common almonds; however, each includes a few bitter almonds for flavor.

Fortunately, some of our common foods contain vitamin B17 (see sidebar). Whenever you munch on a pear or apple, be sure to enjoy their valuable seeds. Also, using a nut cracker, crack open the pits of the apricots, plums, nectarines and peaches for their inner nutmeat. Use in moderation.

Strawberries excepted, other berries are laetrile sources. For those of us living in the northwest, we might even bump into one another foraging from the blackberry bushes along pathways and ditch banks. Starting in July, there are plenty of juicy sweet berries (with a small hint of bitter) for all of us.

Until then, eat your pear seeds and maybe try this pot of chickpea soup. While chickpeas are predominately sweet and earthy in flavor, you can discern just a hint of the bitter flavor which identifies the presence of valuable vitamin B17.

Food Sources of Vitamin B17 (amygdaline, laetrile)

Nuts & Seeds	Berries	Grains	Beans
Superior
wild apricot pit bitter almond
Excellent
apricot pit almond apple pip cherry seed nectarine seed pear pip plum seed	wild blackberry wild cranberry elderberry
Good
flax seed squash seed	blackberry cranberry boysenberry currant gooseberry huckleberry logan berry mulberry	buckwheat millet	chickpea fava lima mung

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