ONE of the most interesting and vital substances in the world is "the green colouring matter of plants" known as chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is closely related, chemically, to hemoglobin, "the red colouring matter of the blood". The basic difference between the two, in fact, is simply that whereas the molecule constituting the hemoglobin of blood contains, in addition to carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, the element iron, in the chlorophyll molecule magnesium is substituted for iron.
Blood, of course, is also related to chlorophyll in function. Chlorophyll is the vital element in the "blood" of the plant, of plant life, serving the same purposes in the plants economy that hemoglobin does in higher forms of life.
How is Chlorophyll made?
"A ray of sunlight strikes the green leaf, and instantly the miracle is wrought. Within the plant molecule of water and carbon dioxide are torn apart-a feat which the chemist can accomplish only with great difficulty and expense. First there are only lifeless gas and water; then, presto! these elements are transformed into living tissue and useful energy. Oxygen is released from the plant to revitalize the air we breathe. Units of energy, in sugars and other carbohydrates, are speedily manufactured and stored within the living plant. Out of the process stems much of what we know as life and growth. Man consumes the energy as food-both in vegetables and the flesh of herbivorous animals. He uses it in the form of coal, oil and gas-green vegetables locked up in the earth for ages."
The above excerpt is from one of the earliest reports on the miracle of chlorophyll. As the writer pointed out at the time: "Don't be surprised if your doctor tells you that he has never heard of chlorophyll being used in this way (medicinally). But evidence of chlorophyll's medicinal value is most encouraging so far. Distinguished medical specialists report that in 1200 recorded cases they have seen chlorophyll combat deep-lying infections, and banish common head colds.. More remarkable, they say, is the way it accomplishes these things-speedily and effectively, with none of the harsh, irritating effects common to most antiseptics. Chlorophyll, the healer, is at once powerful and bland-devastating to germs and yet gentle to the wounded body tissues. Exactly how it works is still Nature's secret. To the ordinary person the phenomenon seems like green magic.
Chlorophyll, according to another scientist, is associated with the various oil-soluble vitamin complexes, with vitamins A, E, F and K. (Vitamin F is more generally referred to as UFA, the principle of the unsaturated fatty acids proved so essential to health, and with the enzyme phosphatase.)
Antiseptic Effects
The conditions which have been reported as responding favourably to the administration of chlorophyll include both internal and external infections; simple and infected wounds and ulcerations; various skin and bone diseases, peritonitis (inflammation of the membrane lining the stomach cavity, the viscera), mouth, gum and sinus infections. Chlorophyll has also been used therapeutically to reduce hypertension, or high blood pressure.
Chlorophyll's antiseptic effect, in addition to its property of strengthening the walls of cells, may also be due in part to its other beneficial effects; importantly chlorophyll's ability to neutralize the metabolic toxin, guanidine, which could be "the main toxic agent in severe burns. Chlorophyll acts much quicker than vitamin F in treating burns. It nullifies the pain; the quicker it is applied after the burn the less severity, for the toxic agents are destroyed before they do much damage. Chlorophyll applied to extracted tooth sockets stops the same type of pain-the agonizing, irritating pain that keeps the patient awake, that is so hard to alleviate with narcotics."
Nutritional and Healing Properties
Commenting on the nutritional qualities of chlorophyll Dr. Royal Lee observes: "Another effect attributed to guanidine is the precipitation of calcium from blood serum, and it is suspected to be a cause of calcification of coronary arteries, diffusing in from the muscle-guanidine being an end product of muscle fatigue. We may consider that this chlorophyll complex is of much greater importance than heretofore suspected and that its use by races such as the Chinese, where arthritis and heart disease is practically unknown, may be a very important factor in contributing to the prevention of these diseases so prevalent in this country, where greens, if eaten at all, are generally cooked and of questionable quality in the first place."
In a dramatic series of experiments, made to determine the relative efficiency of various chlorophyll preparations as healing agents, in comparison with a large number of other substances widely used for the purpose, the chlorophyll preparations proved more effective than any of the other-by a wide margin.
"In summary, we note that 67 percent of all wounds treated by one or another preparation of chlorophyll healed more rapidly than their controls...it would seem to indicate that chlorophyll does not cause some biologic response in respect to stimulating cell growth which can be put to a useful purpose in the many problems associated with would healing...Of all these agents, only the chlorophyll preparations consistently showed any statistically significant effect in accelerating the healing of both traumatic and thermal (heat-caused) wounds."
Natures Miracle Medicine
Of probability the most vital importance in its significance in the above experiments is the fact that chlorophyll increases the body's intake of oxygen, as the result of which the disposal of the metabolic toxin, carbonic acid, is facilitated with increased efficiency-up to twenty percent more rapidly.
Chlorophyll, much to the bafflement of early investigators, is inert in the test tube; that is, it has no antiseptic effects in the test-tube. It was not until it was realized that it operates in the above manner that the physiology of its activity was understood. Its clinical effects are largely explained by this phenomenon.
Perhaps the best indication of the tremendous potentialities of this substance, chlorophyll, "the green miracle," is offered in an experiment that took place not long ago.
In this investigation into its oxygenating properties a man was sealed-literally sealed-into an airtight tank, for a matter of no less than 57 hours. As we know, normally this would mean suicide, within minutes. But the man emerged from his air-tight chamber no worse for the experience.
The secret? Chlorophyll. The tank contained a series of tubes containing algae. Under the influence of batteries of lamps-what might be termed synthetic sunlight-the algae were activated in the process called photosynthesis, in which the single-celled plants-initiated nutrients essential to their existence, and of course, used in turn by higher life forms of life for their existence. The man breathed in the released oxygen and breathed out the metabolic waste product, carbon dioxide, the carbon and oxygen of which then become available to the plants, permitting them to product carbon-containing molecules-a fair exchange between plants and man that provide the vital essentials for both.
In Summary
Chlorophyll, in common with miracle-working vitamin C, is another example of the natural superiority of the contents of nature's wonderful medicine chest over man-synthesized products, i.e., safe, harmless, physiologically compatible, free of "side effects" -incomparably better, more effective.
It certainly appears that in our obsession with the rapid development of our chemistry in our laboratories we have tended to largely overlook the value of the products of the laboratory that was here long before our own laboratories. On the other hand, it must of course be realized that, paradoxically enough, in order to be in a position to learn the true extent of nature's gifts it was necessary for us to learn, through laboratory techniques, their nature. Chlorophyll is an outstanding example of this fact.
Excerpt from NATURE"S MIRACLE MEDICINE CHEST by C. EDWARD BURTIS
Blood, of course, is also related to chlorophyll in function. Chlorophyll is the vital element in the "blood" of the plant, of plant life, serving the same purposes in the plants economy that hemoglobin does in higher forms of life.
How is Chlorophyll made?
"A ray of sunlight strikes the green leaf, and instantly the miracle is wrought. Within the plant molecule of water and carbon dioxide are torn apart-a feat which the chemist can accomplish only with great difficulty and expense. First there are only lifeless gas and water; then, presto! these elements are transformed into living tissue and useful energy. Oxygen is released from the plant to revitalize the air we breathe. Units of energy, in sugars and other carbohydrates, are speedily manufactured and stored within the living plant. Out of the process stems much of what we know as life and growth. Man consumes the energy as food-both in vegetables and the flesh of herbivorous animals. He uses it in the form of coal, oil and gas-green vegetables locked up in the earth for ages."
The above excerpt is from one of the earliest reports on the miracle of chlorophyll. As the writer pointed out at the time: "Don't be surprised if your doctor tells you that he has never heard of chlorophyll being used in this way (medicinally). But evidence of chlorophyll's medicinal value is most encouraging so far. Distinguished medical specialists report that in 1200 recorded cases they have seen chlorophyll combat deep-lying infections, and banish common head colds.. More remarkable, they say, is the way it accomplishes these things-speedily and effectively, with none of the harsh, irritating effects common to most antiseptics. Chlorophyll, the healer, is at once powerful and bland-devastating to germs and yet gentle to the wounded body tissues. Exactly how it works is still Nature's secret. To the ordinary person the phenomenon seems like green magic.
Chlorophyll, according to another scientist, is associated with the various oil-soluble vitamin complexes, with vitamins A, E, F and K. (Vitamin F is more generally referred to as UFA, the principle of the unsaturated fatty acids proved so essential to health, and with the enzyme phosphatase.)
Antiseptic Effects
The conditions which have been reported as responding favourably to the administration of chlorophyll include both internal and external infections; simple and infected wounds and ulcerations; various skin and bone diseases, peritonitis (inflammation of the membrane lining the stomach cavity, the viscera), mouth, gum and sinus infections. Chlorophyll has also been used therapeutically to reduce hypertension, or high blood pressure.
Chlorophyll's antiseptic effect, in addition to its property of strengthening the walls of cells, may also be due in part to its other beneficial effects; importantly chlorophyll's ability to neutralize the metabolic toxin, guanidine, which could be "the main toxic agent in severe burns. Chlorophyll acts much quicker than vitamin F in treating burns. It nullifies the pain; the quicker it is applied after the burn the less severity, for the toxic agents are destroyed before they do much damage. Chlorophyll applied to extracted tooth sockets stops the same type of pain-the agonizing, irritating pain that keeps the patient awake, that is so hard to alleviate with narcotics."
Nutritional and Healing Properties
Commenting on the nutritional qualities of chlorophyll Dr. Royal Lee observes: "Another effect attributed to guanidine is the precipitation of calcium from blood serum, and it is suspected to be a cause of calcification of coronary arteries, diffusing in from the muscle-guanidine being an end product of muscle fatigue. We may consider that this chlorophyll complex is of much greater importance than heretofore suspected and that its use by races such as the Chinese, where arthritis and heart disease is practically unknown, may be a very important factor in contributing to the prevention of these diseases so prevalent in this country, where greens, if eaten at all, are generally cooked and of questionable quality in the first place."
In a dramatic series of experiments, made to determine the relative efficiency of various chlorophyll preparations as healing agents, in comparison with a large number of other substances widely used for the purpose, the chlorophyll preparations proved more effective than any of the other-by a wide margin.
"In summary, we note that 67 percent of all wounds treated by one or another preparation of chlorophyll healed more rapidly than their controls...it would seem to indicate that chlorophyll does not cause some biologic response in respect to stimulating cell growth which can be put to a useful purpose in the many problems associated with would healing...Of all these agents, only the chlorophyll preparations consistently showed any statistically significant effect in accelerating the healing of both traumatic and thermal (heat-caused) wounds."
Natures Miracle Medicine
Of probability the most vital importance in its significance in the above experiments is the fact that chlorophyll increases the body's intake of oxygen, as the result of which the disposal of the metabolic toxin, carbonic acid, is facilitated with increased efficiency-up to twenty percent more rapidly.
Chlorophyll, much to the bafflement of early investigators, is inert in the test tube; that is, it has no antiseptic effects in the test-tube. It was not until it was realized that it operates in the above manner that the physiology of its activity was understood. Its clinical effects are largely explained by this phenomenon.
Perhaps the best indication of the tremendous potentialities of this substance, chlorophyll, "the green miracle," is offered in an experiment that took place not long ago.
In this investigation into its oxygenating properties a man was sealed-literally sealed-into an airtight tank, for a matter of no less than 57 hours. As we know, normally this would mean suicide, within minutes. But the man emerged from his air-tight chamber no worse for the experience.
The secret? Chlorophyll. The tank contained a series of tubes containing algae. Under the influence of batteries of lamps-what might be termed synthetic sunlight-the algae were activated in the process called photosynthesis, in which the single-celled plants-initiated nutrients essential to their existence, and of course, used in turn by higher life forms of life for their existence. The man breathed in the released oxygen and breathed out the metabolic waste product, carbon dioxide, the carbon and oxygen of which then become available to the plants, permitting them to product carbon-containing molecules-a fair exchange between plants and man that provide the vital essentials for both.
In Summary
Chlorophyll, in common with miracle-working vitamin C, is another example of the natural superiority of the contents of nature's wonderful medicine chest over man-synthesized products, i.e., safe, harmless, physiologically compatible, free of "side effects" -incomparably better, more effective.
It certainly appears that in our obsession with the rapid development of our chemistry in our laboratories we have tended to largely overlook the value of the products of the laboratory that was here long before our own laboratories. On the other hand, it must of course be realized that, paradoxically enough, in order to be in a position to learn the true extent of nature's gifts it was necessary for us to learn, through laboratory techniques, their nature. Chlorophyll is an outstanding example of this fact.
Excerpt from NATURE"S MIRACLE MEDICINE CHEST by C. EDWARD BURTIS
