Introduction: Harvesting Natural Podophyllotoxin in Your Local Forest for Use in Treating Genital Warts
[PHOTO CREDIT: Cassi Saari]
"Having your warts cured? Great. Taking a walk in the woods? Fabulous. Having your warts cured by taking a walk in the woods? Priceless." - Pefty
Ever heard the statistic that "25% of our medicines come directly from plants"? Ever wondered which medicines? Ever wondered which plants? Would you be surprised to hear that a very expensive topical medicine for an everyday disease is made from a very common, very recognizable, and very easily processed plant native to forests throughout the eastern USA? Yeah, I was surprised too. The Mayapple plant was already one of my favorite native plants when I found out its medicinal use.
It turns out that one of the only known drugs for treatment of genital warts is podophyllotoxin, an alkaloid that the pharma-industrial complex harvests from the only place it can be found in any quantity: the roots of the local native Mayapple plant. Standard pharmaceutical doses range from 0.15% to 0.5% strength, quite similar to the concentrations at which the chemical naturally occurs in Mayapple roots. I decided to try skipping the pharma-industrial complex and prepare a topical ointment of my own. Since similar preparation instructions do not seem to be available anywhere on the web, and since my preparation worked so well (warts were gone in a week, with no detectable side effects), and since it was such a world-changing experience to make use of my natural surroundings in medicinal healing, I decided I owed it to the community to post how I went about it :)
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DISCLAIMER:
In the medicinal arena, I can vouch only for my own experience and cannot count myself Hippocratically qualified to recommend treatment to others. This instructable is to be used as a narrative of my experience ONLY, not as how-to cure instructions. In the case I treated, a qualified doctor had identified the case as genital warts caused by HPV and had recommended topical treatment.
WARNING FOR MAKERS:
Within the mainstream medical research community, Podophyllotoxin is regarded as sufficiently safe for unsupervised application by the patient and does not need to be washed off.¹ That said, Podophyllotoxin is a mitosis disruptor and should be handled with great care. DO NOT EVER INGEST Mayapple plants, and if possible, don't even handle the roots with your bare hands. Wash immediately with soap and water if you do. Probably don't use the same equipment for PREPARING FOOD that you use for handling Mayapple material. DO NOT BREATHE any dust that you create from Mayapple material, and DO NOT GET ANY IN YOUR EYES. Podophyllotoxin Material Safety Data Sheet ("MSDS") can be found as a PDF here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4ZJ6sHjfrqrQUJtZHdwWldWem8/view?usp=sharing
WARNING FOR TAKERS:
This treatment is not recommended for treating genital warts *inside* the penis, rectum, or vagina.
This treatment is not recommended for bleeding, swollen, or irritated skin.
This treatment is not recommended if you are experiencing any of the following:
• diabetes
• circulation problems
• Raynaud's syndrome
• use of steroid medications such as prednisone, fluticasone (Advair), mometasone (Asmanex, Nasonex), dexamethasone (Decadron, Hexadrol) and others
• pregnancy or breast-feeding
WARNING FOR SEXY PEOPLE:
Genital warts are contagious. Avoid unprotected* intimate contact if you have genital warts. Surprisingly, even successful wart treatment can't guarantee you won't pass genital warts to others. Talk with your doctor about safe methods of preventing transmission during intimate contact, and then look at the informed consent conversations you'll want to start enjoying with intimate partners.
EXHORTATION FOR FORAGERS:
Foraging wild plants means leaving plenty for wildlife and other thrifty foragers, being mindful of the natural habitat, asking permission before you pick on private land, and other common courtesies. If you haven't wild-foraged before, consider committing to abiding by a set of rules like these: https://web.archive.org/web/20160331071524/http://eatherenow.org/2012/02/20/guidelines-practices-ethical-foraging
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* A condom may or may not suffice for protection, depending on the wart site. Be sensible.
¹ Lacey CJN, Goodall RL, Tenvall GR, et al., 2003: "Randomised controlled trial and economic evaluation of podophyllotoxin solution, podophyllotoxin cream, and podophyllin in the treatment of genital warts." Sex Transm Infect. 79: pp. 270-275. doi: 10.1136/sti.79.4.270. url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1744726/pdf/v079p00270.pdf
Step 1: Materials!
- A genital wart (duh)
- An inorganic paste medium; I use bacitracin but vaseline might be just as good
- A little square band-aid
- A paper towel
- Latex or other disposable gloves
- A knife, blunt or sharp. DEDICATED to handling Mayapples.
- A garden hand spade
- A spice grinder or mortar&pestle. Blender or food processor may work too. DEDICATED to handling Mayapples.
- Access to Mayapple plants, either on eBay, or in a local forest between ~April and ~August
Step 2: Obtain Mayapple Roots
Mayapple grows in forests throughout eastern North America (for Canada map see here), often in dense patches that contain only Mayapple plants. When they first appear in April their umbrella-like leaves are folded up, but by May the unfurling of their single leaf (or sometimes two leaves) is complete, and a single white flower blooms under the leafy canopy. If fertilized, this flower produces a green ball-shaped fruit known as, you guessed it, the May Apple.
Mayapples are common enough that you're likely to encounter them on any hike through the woods in your area, as long as you're in the geographic range marked on this map. When you find a patch of Mayapple plants, take just one or maybe two plants -- this will be plenty, and will leave plenty for sustaining the local population (as well as for other readers of this instructable). Mayapple roots are tenacious, so bring a little hand spade and dig up the main root. DO NOT HANDLE DIRECTLY with bare skin if you can avoid it. Use your latex gloves or other gloves here if you like.
If I were not going to prepare the ointment immediately, I would consider placing the roots in a plastic bag in the refrigerator (WITH A NOTE THAT SAYS 'DO NOT EAT') and spraying them with a little water until I was ready to work with them.
Step 3: Separate the Main Root
Step 4: Finely Grate the Main Root
Step 5: Leave the Gratings Out to Dry Overnight
Step 6: Re-grind the Gratings
Step 7: Mix in Carrier Paste
That's it! This was my preparation from live Mayapple.
Step 8: Apply Ointment to Square Band-Aid
Step 9: Sleep
Step 10: Reapply During the Following Week
Although pharma-industrial dosing recommends 4 nights in a row of treatment, initial cautious experimentation is advised. You may find that 1 night's treatment is sufficient to cause the wart's elimination within 5 days that go from itchy to scabby to wart-free. But to help assure prevention of recurrence, you can do a repeat application every night, or every other night, for four applications. Here, Western pharma-industrial medicine and anecdotal holistic experience coincide.
Step 11: Save Remaining Supplies
Not everyone knows that HPV warts continue to recur until your body decides to overcome the virus. This can mean 1 recurrence, or many. Until then, reapplying the ointment will do its job on any recurring warty manifestation of the virus. (And remember, this is no worse an outcome than for the drug a doctor would prescribe you -- this *is* the drug a doctor would prescribe you!) So it's advised to keep ointment on hand just in case, in the refrigerator (WITH A NOTE THAT SAYS 'DO NOT EAT').
Step 12: Reflect in Awe and Wonder at the Natural World Around You
Although starting to wild-forage for food was pretty amazing, wild-foraging for medicine has transformed my entire relationship with nature and my identity as a mediator between nature and de-natured human society. I hope that this instructable inspires some lucky few to get out there and explore what is possible in the natural world, especially if what becomes possible is awe, and healing.
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