Essex Botanical

Essex Botanical is an herbal preparation containing purified water (by reverse osmosis), burdock root, sheep sorrel, slippery elm bark, and turkey rhubarb root. The formulation originated with the Ojibway Indian Nation in Ontario, Canada but it was developed, refined, and used extensively over a period of more than 50 years by Rene Caisse, a Canadian nurse who lived and worked in the town of Bracebridge, Ontario.

 The "essiac formula" casts an enormous shadow among branded names in the North American herbal community. Behind the product is the true life legend of "Cancer nurse" Rene Caisse ("essiac" is Nurse Rene's last name spelled backwards).
During the life of her clinic (1934 to 1942), Caisse is reported to have cured many hundreds of cancer -- of varying types and stages of development -- and for free. (In fact, 55,000 Canadians signed her petition to the Ontario Legislature in favor of her treatment, in addition to 387 patients and an uncounted number of medical doctors). She did it primarily on the strength of just one product, which became known as "essiac."

But Caisse did not invent the essiac formula (the lower case "e" is intentional: Essiac® is a registered trademark owned by Dr. Pierre Gaulin (U.S.) and Terry Maloney (Canada)). The basis for the formula is rooted in native Ojibway (a tribe native to Ontario) medicine.
In any event, what followed after her death in 1978 is all too characteristic of pettiness and greed we see in the orthodox community -- bickering and in-fighting over trademarks, connection to the legend, and who does and who does not have the "real" essiac formula.

Essex Botanical is produced by a 2nd generation European Master Herbalist, who has not cut corners on ingredients or production protocol. It is a patent herbal.

Our Assessment: Among phytopharmacologists, the active components within the essiac formula are quite well known, collectively fitting a category that we call "mildly cancerolytic." To call it a "cancer cure" is a real stretch, though there can be no doubt that it is of real benefit as a 'nutraceutical cocktail' for most cancer patients. You should use this formula for the same reason that you should listen to nutritionists who advise you to take regular fresh helpings of chemopreventatives in your diet -- cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli; tomatoes, for their llycopenes; pau d' arco tea, for its hydroquinones, etc. Fighting cancer should be viewed as waging war. And you rarely win a war with only one weapon.

An interesting footnote on the Essex Botanical formula is that, according to several people who had direct conversations with Rene Caisse, she indicated that the formula was only beneficial for the curing cancer, but also as a remedy for diabetes and AIDS. These seem to stand to reason, as her claim has always been that it improves and enhance's one's immune system.

Editor's Note: from http://www.nativehealingherbals.com/