Fascinating Cactus Story

[daiv]

Hi Gang! I receeived an e-mail from a guy who was trying to identify a cactus. This is nothing new for me as you know, but he said he was using it as medicine. I asked him for more details to share with everyone. Below is his story. I'm interested in some feedback on this. I'll follow up with pictures and ID in a second post.

Here's the story:

Dear Daiv
Thank you for your response concerning the pitaya cactus. I will go into a little more detail about
my experience in Calvio Mexico.
FIrst of all I was born in Riverside, California in March 11, 1958. My name is Joseph Olivarez. I live in Moreno Valley, California and work as an inspector for Public Works in the County of San Bernardino.
Since 1997 I have had a tumor in my brain. The Doctors have taken MRI's every 6 to 9 months to monitor the tumor to see if it was getting any bigger. It was not growing, so they opted not to operate. In April of 2003 I had a stroke which effected my right side and my speech. I was under heavy medication for pain and for seizures. I was on partial disability and was quickly getting worse, by December of 2003 my wife and I decided to go to our home in Aguascalientes. Once we arrived to our home, a neighbor had said that he had dreams that I was pale yellow and that he knew something was wrong with me. He invited me to go see a distant relative on his wives side who he felt could help me. I figured why not go, The Doctors in the US were not doing much for me.
This 83 year old man touched different pressure points in my body and my head and said that half my brain had problems and that I needed to go with him to the countryside to cut a piece of Pitaya. We got in the car and drove to the countryside and he located the plant that he wanted for me. The Pitaya has to have 7 veins. We cut down the appropriate limb about 8" in diameter and 36" in length.
The old man said to cut off the spines first. Then to take the Pitaya limb home and take two to three thin cross sections of the Pitaya in the evening and place them into a 1 liter glass jar of water. Let the Pitaya sit in the jar over night then begin drinking it in the morning before having any other food or liquid. Then continue to drink the Pitaya liquid all day long until it was all gone. The second day repeat everything again and so on until the pitaya is gone. He also said that I could precut the Pitaya into thin pieces and air dry them if there is the chance of the Pitaya rotting. He said 24 hours was the maximum time that the Pitaya in the Jar would be drinkable. So it would be necessary to make a new batch every day.
When I first took my first drinks of Pitaya I felt very strange a bit drunk and a bit upset in the stomach. My eyes turned glassy and I decided it was best to lie down. I did have interesting dreams and I guess you could call them visions. The taste is not bad something like aloe vera plant with alot of viscosity. During the third and fourth days I was spitting out grains of gritty stuff white in color but gritty like sand. This continued for a few days. During the first week I was use to the Pitaya and was already feeling better. After the first month I did slice the remaining Pitaya into thin wafers and let them air dry. I continued taking the Pitaya for two months.
My mother had bad nausea for days and was not able to do much of anything, I gave her a taste of the Pitaya and within 10 minutes her nausea was gone. There after I shared the Pitaya with my parents because my Dad also was getting treatment for cancer of the prostate. My Dads recent test have been negative to any cancer. The old man in Mexico had said that the Pitaya would also cure cancer. Which it did for my Dad and for my neighbors sister-in-law in Mexico. She had cancer in her breasts. She took the Pitaya and was cured of cancer in her breasts.

If you have any questions feel free to call.
God bless you and all your readers

Joseph Olivarez

[daiv]

Here are the pictures that go with the story. I believe this is Stenocereus montanus

http://www.cactiguide.com/graphics/stenocereus001.jpg

http://www.cactiguide.com/graphics/stenocereus002.jpg

http://www.cactiguide.com/graphics/stenocereus003.jpg

[ihc6480]

Being a somewhat older guy I've heard of a lot of old fashion cures in my lifetime and have seen a lot of them actually work.

The story is interesting to say the least. I hope that cactus doesn't become a endangered cacti from people reading the story

[KactusKathi]

Told you this would be a good subject!

[kari]

I presume KactusKathi presented the idea for this part of the Forum? Way to go, Kathi!!!

I, too, have heard of several stories similar to this, that is why I also have several Medicinal Plants books. You'd be surprised what the Native Americans called certain plants! One of them, and I forgot which plant, and NOT a cactus, translates paraphrasingly into "toilet paper"!

Now, all we have to do is find out what in this humungous pitahaya is responsible for the "cures".

kari

[Guest]

Hi Daiv,

I've started recently on a Romanian C&S forum a discussion on different uses of cacti. As I find Josephs story extremely interesting I would like to write about it on this forum, using extended parts or even the entire text in Romanian translation. Therefore I am asking you for permission to use it, of course naming the source and providing a link to the original English version.

Eduart

[Guest]

Have no idea what happened, I was logged in as Eduart...

[daiv]

Eduart,
Sure. He encouraged that I share his story and he is not against copying it nor am I.

I don't know why your message posted a guest. Let me know if you have trouble loggin in.

Daiv

[eduart]

Thanks Daiv.

Eduart

[cactusbutt]

Very interesting read, thanks for sharing, Daiv

[Mike A]

So was it Pitaya (Hylocereus) or that Stenocactus?

[daiv]

Stenocereus. I believe it was S. montanus to be exact. He sent me some pictures. I'll have to find them and post them.

[daiv]

Actually I think this could also be S. queretaroensis

The pictures are in the second post of this topic.

If anybody can confirm the ID, that would be great.

[mavaz]

Hi there:

In Mexico we call pitayas to more than 20 species of plants, by the region (aguscalientes) I also guess it could be S. queretaroensis.

I have recently (last weekend) attend the 9th national meeting about "medicinal plants, alternative therapy and indigenous culture".I?ve been in this meeting for the nine years.
This is in Torreon, Coahuila in North Central Mexico. For a more clear idea of the nature of the meeting I can tell you that the inaguration ceremony is a blessing by "marakame" (medicine man from huichol people) with a "hikuri" (peyote, Lophophora willliamsii) ritual.

I work for an agrnomy faculty and I am in charge of a botanical garden in reconstruction. So we go to this meeting with a colection of plants from the desert. And in concordance with the subject of your post we have been required every year by the people who visit our stand, for columnar cacti with 3,5 or 7 ribs. They say that they can make a drink than can be useful to the treatment of cancer. I?ve been asking people for the description of this cacti and they have identified S. queretaroensis and S. marginatus as the one they are looking for.

Despite of our concern about the conservation, I think that the medical propietes of cacti are a very interesting subject.

We are colecting information for the medicinal use of plants in the chihuhuan desert. So, we have a lot of work to do.

[Dominique]

All this is extremely interesting. It reminds me of Carlos Castaneda's books that I read many times over the years.