While talking about large bindweed (Calystegia silvatica) at a recent event in London a woman present contributed the following:

‘Bindweed can be used to treat cancer; it binds round the cancer and kills it.  You can’t treat yourself, it has to be prescribed by a herbalist, it’s important to get the right dose.’

Any comments would be much appreciated; please send them to roy@plant-lore.com

Comment:  A quick search of the web suggests that this ‘cure’ is well-known amongst people who believe in some of the outer reaches of alternative medicine, or perhaps simply desperate cancer sufferers, but it appears that the plant usually used is field bindweed, Convolvulus arvensis, rather than large bindweed.  [RV, January 2021].

Image: Beacon Park, Lichfield, Staffordshire; September 2014.

Updated 28 January 2021.