Every year, around 200,000 people in the Netherlands are diagnosed with skin cancer and not everyone is satisfied with the regular treatment offered by doctors. Some seek refuge in the alternative circle and then end up with the black ointment that is supposed to diagnose skin cancer and then also remove and cure it. Is it really a miracle cure or is it an example of quackery?

Black ointment

• What is black ointment?
• Mohs micrographic surgery
• Not registered as a medicine
• Quackery or panacea?
• Report Radar
• MMS4U

What is black ointment?

Black ointment is a thick, jet-black ointment that, according to tradition, was used centuries ago by Indian tribes from North America and to which a medicinal effect was attributed. The ointment as it is now recommended by alternative healers is a cream that will immediately cure conditions such as skin cancer and is also seen as a kind of diagnostic instrument. You could use it to determine whether you actually have skin cancer. According to the instructions, you should apply the ointment to the suspected area of the skin and leave it there for 24 hours. If nothing happens, the spot did not contain any faulty cells and you don’t have to worry about it anymore. If it turns out that you have a form of skin cancer, the black ointment will form a crust on the skin that you can peel off after two weeks or wash off with water, taking the wrong cells with it. The spot can leave a hole in the skin, so to speak, but alternative healers claim that the spot will heal almost without a scar. It is also used to treat warts, boils and other skin conditions.

Mohs micrographic surgery

black salve or Cansema in English . In fact, it is promoted as an alternative to Mohs micrographic surgery, the procedure often recommended for skin cancer removal. Because all cutting surfaces of the removed piece of skin are checked for the presence of cancer cells, it can be said with near certainty that the cancer has been removed in its entirety. Anyone who uses black ointment to remove the affected skin can of course always take some of the faulty cells with them, but there is never a guarantee that everything will be removed. When it is determined that a patient suffers from skin cancer, the recommended treatment is not always Mohs surgery. This technique is especially suitable for basal cell carcinoma, but not for melanoma. Assessment can be difficult in the case of squamous cell carcinoma and atypical fibroxanthoma. The approach is therefore very precise and is too complex to be dismissed with an ointment.

Not registered as a medicine

Because black ointment is not registered as a medicine, its production is not regulated and its composition can vary greatly. In 2008, an anti-weakness website from the United States conducted research into the composition and active ingredients of the ointment. The result was that in many cases zinc chloride, chaparral (larrea tridentata) and tetterwort (sanguinaria canadensis) were present. The latter is a quaternary ammonium salt that is extracted from, among others, the prickly poppy, greater celandine and the plume poppy or feather moon (macleaya cordata). A characteristic of quaternary ammonium salts is that when it comes into contact with the skin, it kills tissue after which an eschar or ‘tache noire’ forms, a thick black crust surrounded by a red area that looks inflamed. It is therefore very dangerous to apply this without the guidance of a doctor!

Quackery or panacea?

In September 2012, the Tros program Radar devoted an item to the application of black ointment. A journalist went with a hidden camera to an information meeting of Rineke van den Berg, a saleswoman of the drug. During the meeting she successively said that the drug can effectively cure skin cancer, that it should not be used in combination with chemotherapy because this would be duplicative and she also said that the importers of this drug are misleading customs because it is actually prohibited. buy black ointment. In America you can get a prison sentence for it.Author Adrian Jones published the book ‘Black Salve. The application of the black ointment for breast and skin cancer in the 21st century’, in which the effect of the product was once again explained using examples. He calls legislation that makes it impossible to use the drug to combat cancer in the Netherlands ‘twisted’.

Report Radar

In a broadcast of the Tros program Radar, three experts in the field of skin cancer and other skin conditions were given the opportunity to speak. Dr. Gertruud Krekels, doctor at the Catharina Hospital and affiliated with the Dutch Association for Dermatology, professor of pharmacology Prof. Dr. Renger Witkamp and Annemieke Horikx of the KNMP all categorically deny the claim that black ointment could be effective against skin cancer. They also label the drug as dangerous, not only because its use could prevent people from seeking help from a doctor, but also because it can significantly damage the skin, while cancer alone would not have gotten to this point. Black ointment is also sold in capsules . Its use is also labeled as dangerous by doctors because it is in fact toxic and not aimed at a specific part of the body like chemotherapy.The broadcast cites examples of people whose entire nose has been eaten away by the ointment, which actually has the opposite effect. The drug is banned in America and is on a list of 187 drugs that are wrongly advertised as curing cancer. Possession and sale of black ointment, both in cream and capsule form, is punishable.

MMS4U

Until 2012, you could buy black ointment in the Netherlands from MMS4U , also the organizer of the meeting, fragments of which were shown in the Radar broadcast. The jars of ointment are quite pricey. You pay more than 136 euros for two pots. The website, which, in addition to black ointment, also described the effects of Moringa Oleifera, for example, was taken down in September 2012 – according to the company’s own account for administrative reasons. Rineke van den Berg has been arrested on suspicion of fraud.