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It Does Not Have To Be Green To Be Good For You
Back in the 1940's, chlorophyll was king and, if you read the marketing spin about the benefits of wheatgrass, it still holds sway as a key healing agent that does everything from increasing oxygen levels to cleansing the blood. Or even more outrageously "helps keep the colon healthy by destroying disease causing bacteria." In reality, other than playing its extremely important role in photosynthesis, there is probably only one claim that can be made about this molecule and that is, "It's green."
Hailed as a great healer, there was no shortage of research funding to prove that chlorophyll could clean and heal infected wounds. For instance, in 1947, US Army Lieutenant-Colonel Bowers reported on the use of "water-soluble derivatives" of chlorophyll in over 400 cases. He observed several major effects, notably:
- Loss of odour associated with infected wounds
- A stimulating effect on tissue formation when used as a dressing particularly for burns
- A drying effect in the case of abscesses, sinus tracts, surface wounds and osteomyelitis (bone infection).
He also mentions faster healing of anal fistulas e.g. as in Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, bedsores, bone fractures, gunshot wounds and so on. In some cases, legs were saved from "inevitable amputation".
The author was “convinced that chlorophyll is the best agent known for use in the treatment of suppurative diseases, indolent ulcers or wherever stimulation of tissue repair is desired.”
Although I am not familiar with war-caused injuries and infections, I can certainly vouch for many of the healing observations the colonel made as I have observed them many times in clinical practice. In particular burns, fractures, anal fistulas, bedsores and infected wounds - and I could add many of my own original medical uses to the list.
But was it the chlorophyll or the "water-soluble derivatives" that did the job? Almost certainly it was the latter.
You see, chlorophyll is a very complicated molecule that oxidizes and degenerates very quickly. It is also very difficult and expensive to synthesize, so to produce a "chlorophyll" product would cost a fortune and be inaccessible to most people.
Then as now, (except in rare cases where actual chlorophyll is used), chlorophyll research was done with a substance called "Chlorophyllin", a commercially manufactured product. This contains an added copper salt to keep what appears to be a "wheatgrass" mixture green, but is no more than a food colourant officially approved by the American Food and Drug Administration.
In due course, Chlorophyllin was serendipitously found
to have remarkable healing properties. Ever since, chlorophyll has been
confused with Chlorophyllin.
Even the Linus Pauling Insitute seems confused about this. Their website states: "Chlorophyllin is a semi-synthetic mixture of water-soluble
sodium copper salts derived from chlorophyll." (View article offsite). Also, an article by R. Dashwood at the University of Hawaii entitled "The importance of using pure chemicals in anti/mutagenicity studies: chlorophyllin as a case in point" refers to the increasing number of scientific articles referring to chlorophyllin and states the need for its complex biochemical nature to be established before any real conclusions should be drawn about its efficacy.
I came to a similar conclusion many years ago simply by observing numerous healing phenomena in clinical practice and knowing that the wheatgrass extract I use contains no chlorophyll! Yet it can achieve many if not all the same healing miracles we see with chlorophyllin. Why? I am almost certain it is because of the Grass Juice Factor. This powerful growth and fertility factor exists not just in cereal grasses, but in many other plants in varying amounts such as green peas, cauliflower, peanuts, carrots (orange not green) and turnips. Perhaps one reason for Japanese longevity is a high level of the Grass Juice Factor in seaweed that is widely consumed in Japan.
So eating green is okay because of the GJF, but not because of chlorophyll. So are many other non-green foods. The Factor itself is, as I have mentioned many times, most likely a natural immunomodulator or "normaliser" of damaged cells, possibly via growth factor activation. The implications for this in advancing medical knowledge and for natural healing are potentially immense.
Food for thought?
Dr. Chris Reynolds.
