Rodent Tuber (Typhonium flagiliforme)

Occasionally, when I search the Net, I come accross one or two articles that I would like to share. It is my intention to create awareness on alternative treatments of cancer.

English Name: Rodent Tuber
Common name: Keladi tikus, Tu Ban Xia or Lao Shu Yu
Botanical name: Typhonium flagelliforme

Class: Liliopsida
Subclass: Aridae
Superorder: Aranae
Order: Alismatales
Family: Araceae
Genus: Typhonium


Rodent Tuber (Typhonium flagiliforme) is one such plant that offers the potential to cure cancer. According to Cancer Care in Penang and also its center in Indonesia, a number of people have benefitted from using this plant. There are a number of acticles about the plant and you can find them starting from here.

Is this plant really that good as claimed? I balance the view with some scientific evidence. The cytoxity of the plant has also been studied by Chee-Yan Choo, Kit-Lam Chan, Koichi Takeya and Hideji Itokawa. Their research paper Cytotoxic activity of Typhonium flagelliforme (Araceae) was published by Phytotherapy Research, Volume 15, Issue 3, pages 260–262, May 2001. An abstract of their study is given below.

The plant Typhonium flagelliforme (Araceae), commonly known as the ‘rodent tuber’, is often included as an essential ingredient in various herbal remedies recommended for cancer therapies in Malaysia. Various extracts prepared from either the roots, tubers, stems or leaves were tested for cytotoxic activity on murine P388 leukaemia cells using the MTT assay method. Both the chloroform (IC50 = 6.0 µg/mL) and hexane (IC50 = 15.0 µg/mL) extract from the ‘roots and tubers’ exhibited weak cytotoxic activity. The hexane extract (IC50 = 65.0 µg/mL) from the ‘stems and leaves’ exhibited weaker cytotoxic activity than the chloroform extract (IC50 = 8.0 µg/mL). Although the juice extract from the ‘roots and tubers’ is frequently consumed for cancer treatment, it exhibited poor cytotoxic activity. Further analysis using an amino acid analyser revealed that the juice extract contained a high concentration of arginine (0.874%). A high tryptophan content (0.800%) was confirmed by NMR and HPLC analysis.

I think this plant deserve a second look not just because of the testimonies but because the people behind it are not ordinary Joe (like me) but herbalist and botanist. They have also been very transparent in how to use the plant through his book Cancer, Yet They Live by Dr. Chris KH Teo (not read it yet as I have been trying to get a copy). Furthermore this plant can be complementary to other althernative therapies. This plant is found abundantly in Java, Indonesia and I am not sure if it found in Malaysia. I am checking on this and will provide an update through the comments later.

As a note, although I am on the modified Gerson Therapy (GT), of the five (5) other people who have contacted me to learn more about and subsequent wants to do the GT, only one was able to comply. Even then we (including myself) are not 100% GT followers because some supplements are just not available in Malaysia. It is my hope to provide other alternative treatments that I know of.