Frogs in the Bufo genus are important to those with basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) as well as other types of cancer. Why? Because they produce venom that contains powerful anticancer agents like bufalin.
Bufalin has been studied intensively because this substance has the ability to make cancers that are resistant to other forms of treatments, more vulnerable to medicine. But originally, this anticancer medicine was administered in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) from the Bufo gargarizans Cantor toad. Bufo gargarizans is an Asian toad in the Bufo genus, but Bufo alvarius is another famous toad that is used as a psychoactive medicine in Mexico. In Mexico, the Bufo toad venom is more famous for its ability to treat mental health issues caused by trauma including addictions, depression, and anxiety. But the trauma-releasing effects of psychoactive Bufo alvarius is relevant to the treatment of cancer as this is an emotion-based disease that is known to responds to trauma-release therapies. Like Ayahuasca for cancer, Bufo alvarius / Sapito is an anti-cancer treatment that works not just on the physical and physiological aspects of this disease, but on the emotional root-cause.
In TCM, Bufo gargarizans Cantor is administered in cinobufacini / huachansu / ch’ansu and chanpi medicines that have significant anticancer effects, but other toad venoms from the Bufo genus contain the same medicinal agents except in different proportions. Of note is the medicinal substance known as bufalin which is found in toad venoms of the Bufo genus. Bufalin has powerful anti-tumor and heart-healing effects that can perhaps be best understood through the psychoactive Bufo toad venom known as Sapito. A person with cancer who wishes to attack this disease from all sides might seek out a TCM practitioner who can administer Ch’ansu and also seek out treatment with Bufo alvarius / Sapito to release trauma related to cancer.
Sapito is the toad venom from the Bufo alvarius or Incilius alvarius frog, otherwise known as the Colorado river toad. While the Sapito toad venom is extracted from living toads by squeezing the glands that secrete the venom, the TCM medicine known as cinobufacini is an extract taken from the dried skin of a dead Bufo gargarizans Cantor toad. Cinobufacini is used in TCM to clear heat from the body and to detoxify tissues. It reduces inflammation and resolves the problem of blood stasis in tissues. While Sapito is typically vaporized and then smoked or sometimes injected, cinobufacini is administered as tablets, capsules, or injections.
The Sapito venom can be placed in a small amount of water and applied to the skin as a natural treatment for BCC and SCC. It can also theoretically be vaporized into a jar with the open end of the jar then placed over SCC or BCC lesions for treatment.
What is Cinobufacini / Ch’ansu?
Cinobufacini is a traditional medicine that is used to treat cancer. It contains bufadienolides which are steroids that are linked to an alpha-pyrone ring. The bufadienolides are the most abundant antitumor substances found in cinobufacini. This medicine is made from dried toad skin from the Bufo gargarizans Cantor.
The bufadienolides that are found in toads of the Bufo genus are similar in chemical structure to bile acids but they are different enough to have a very different final effect when administered. Nonetheless the chemical relationship between bile acids and Bufo toad venom is worth noting for those who have a chemistry background.
The dried toad skin and the bufadienolides are processed using high heat which decomposes the bufadienolides into bufogenins. As such cinobufacini and Sapito, once processed into medicine are both mostly made of bufogenins such as bufalin.
What is Sapito?
Sapito is a psychoactive venom derived from the frog known as Incilius alvarius or Bufo alvarius as well as “sapo bufo”, “sapo del río Colorado” or “sapo del desierto de Sonora”. The toad is not harmed by the removal of the venom although there is a great deal of confusion about this online. The venom is removed from the toad’s skin without harming the toad and then the venom is typically smoked to produce psychoactive effects.
Toads have mucus glands that are distributed all over their skin to produce a slime that keeps their skin moist and lubricated, but in the Bufo genus toads, the parotid glands can be used to harvest the toad venom without killing the frog. The mucus likely aids in the defense of the toad by producing a distasteful odor to predators.
Sapito, in fact, is an important medicine for addictions as well as for anxiety and depression. It is a trauma-releasing medicine. It produces a strong, short trip that usually lasts less than 15 minutes, though sometimes the trip can last up to 30 to 45 minutes. Its psychoactive effects tend to produce relief from depression, anxiety, and withdrawal symptoms (when addiction is present) for days, weeks, or months at a time depending on individual physiology. And while some conventional media sources warn people away from Sapito because of its psychoactive effects, in fact, the Bufo alvarius venom contains a powerful anticancer agent known as bufalin.
Sapito “trips” produce an altered state that take people away from consensus reality. Though some sacred medicines like Ayahuasca or psilocybin allow people to experience an intersection between ordinary reality and the psilocybin-reality or Ayahuasca-reality, Sapito produces a more absolute change into Sapito reality. However, while psilocybin or Ayahuasca trips last much longer (4-8 hours), Sapito trips are very short in comparison.
Like cinobufacini, Sapito is administered using high heat to first vaporize the venom. The bufadienolides are the active ingredients in Bufo alvarius venom that have anticancer effects, but bufadienolides tend to decompose at high temperatures. As such, when Sapito is vaporized using high heat, the anticancer bufadienolide-substances are destroyed, leaving behind bufogenin which makes up a significant proportion of Bufo toad venom.
Below are seven bufogenins:
- Gammabufotalin
- Telecinobufagin
- Bufotalin
- Cinobufotalin
- Bufalin
- Cinobufagin
- Resibufogenin
Sapito from the Bufo alvarius / Incilius alvarius toad additionally contains 5-MeO-DMT which, when vaporized and then inhaled, produces psychoactive effects.
5-MeO-DMT
The main psychoactive agent, a tryptamine, in the Sapito venom is 5-MeO-DMT which is present in several other plants and seeds including:
- Virola sebifera
- Certain Ayahuasca ingredients
- Psilocybin mushrooms
The internal, psychoactive effects of Sapito leads to the resolution and release of trauma. Indeed, Sapito is known as a heart-opening medicine and the 5-MeO-DMT is often credited for its ability to produce a sense of oneness and connection. As with Bufo gargarizans, Bufo alvarius contains bufalin, a substance that has both anticancer and heart-healing effects, but Bufo alvarius is also an important anticancer medicine that can be used to release trauma and because trauma is often what leads to the development of cancer, this medicine can be particularly beneficial for cancer patients. For more information about the link between trauma and cancer, click here.
Harvesting Bufo Toad Venom
In TCM, the Bufo gargarizans Cantor toad is killed and the skin of the toad is harvested and processed at high heat to produce Ch’ansu. But Bufo alvarius and toads of the other species of Bufo produce the medicinal secretion from their parotid glands and there is no need to kill the animals or even harm them during collection of the venom. The Sapito toad, Bufo alvarius does not need to be killed or even harmed in order to harvest its venom.
Collection of the venom from living toads can be done by holding the animals with one hand while pressing down on a board that’s covered with a glass plate. The oblong glands located behind the ear are held near their base between thumb and forefinger and squeezed such that the milky substance squirts onto the underside of the glass plate.
The frog can be set aside to rest for 30-40 minutes after the first harvest of the venom and then the toad venom can be harvested a second time. At this point, the glands will be completely empty and the toad will need 4-6 weeks to regenerate.
The glass plates with the venom are then kept horizontal (usually sitting on a table with the secretions on top) at room temperature. They should be kept out of direct sunlight until the secretions are dry. When they are completely dry they can be scraped off for storage.
Drying the toad venom slowly allows the enzymes in the raw secretions to split the bufotoxins into bufogenins and suberylarginine.
Both Bufo alvarius and the Bufo gargarizans Cantor frog produce medicinal toad venoms that can be harvested in this way.
Bufo genus Venom for Physical and Mental Health Conditions
Bufo alvarius / Incilius alvarius for Anxiety and Depression
One treatment / trip with Sapito is typically enough to cause a quick and sustained reduction in anxiety and depression symptoms. However, we recommend that people with anxiety and depression work with Sapito on a regular basis to ensure that the release of trauma is complete and not “half-way”. Trauma that is released only in part, may cause certain emotions to get “stuck” in the body. The antidote for such a situation is to administer another dose of Sapito so as to “pull the story through” from the body’s felt-experience into the logical, narrative-oriented left-brain.
Bufo alvarius / Incilius alvarius for Other Conditions
One Bufo alvarius treatment also produces stimulation in the neuroendocrine system, improved immune system regulation, and reduction in neuroinflammation. In other words, Bufo alvarius balances hormone levels, improves symptoms of imbalanced immunity or even symptoms of autoimmunity, while reducing brain inflammation that often causes mental illness. The use of Sapito to treat autoimmune disease, cancer, or any health problem involving inflammation is warranted as the toad venom contains medicinal substances that are known to reduce brain inflammation, improve hormone balance, and immune system function.
Bufo rana for Epilepsy: Homeopathic Remedy
One case study described a preparation of the poison glands themselves from the Bufo rana toad in homeopathy (at very tiny doses) for the treatment of seizures and epilepsy. A three-year-old boy with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome became free of seizures after treatment with a homeopathic dilution of the Bufo rana glands at a dilution of C200.
Lennox–Gastaut syndrome is a very severe form of epilepsy with a childhood onset. It is characterized by seizures, developmental delays, and intellectual disabilities. It is typically a lifelong condition that is quite resistant to treatment.
Bufalin for Cancer
The bufalin found in Bufo genus toad venoms are known to have a powerful anticancer effect on the following types of cancer:
- Liver cancer / hepatocellular cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Leukemia
- Gastric cancer
- Lung cancer
- Non-small cell lung cancer
- Breast cancer cells
- Endometrial cancer
- Ovarian cancer
- Bladder cancer
- Multi-drug resistant cancers
- More…
The above-listed types of cancer are the types that have been studied, but in reality, Ch’ansu and the Bufo gargarizans Cantor toad venom has been in use for thousands of years to treat cancer in TCM. Though the use of Sapito to treat cancer itself is less well-known, in fact, people with cancer do seek out Sapito as a treatment to overcome depression or anxiety caused by cancer. But Sapito can be beneficial as a trauma-releasing medicine in addition to its bufalin cancer content which targets cancer cells directly.
Cinobufacini / Huachansu / Ch’ansu, and Chanpi for Cancer
Ch’ansu and Chanpi are two anticancer treatments used in TCM to accomplish the following goals:
- Detoxification
- Inflammation reduction
- Pain reduction
- Immune system modulation
Cinobufacini / Huachansu / Ch’ansu is prepared from dried toad skin and it has been widely used to treat various types of cancer in China.
Cinobufacini / Huachansu / Ch’ansu contains the following bufadienolides:
- Bufalin
- Cinobufagin
- Resibufogenin
- Telocinobufagin
- Arenobufagin
- Bufotalin
- Gamabufotalin
- Cinobufotalin
- Cinobufagin
- Compound 1
The active compounds inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells. They induce cellular differentiation of the cancer cells to cause them to revert back into normal, healthy cells and they also cause certain cancer cells to die. Further, these compounds stop the cell cycle that produces cancer cells and they inhibit the production of a blood supply to feed cancer cells. Bufalin is a powerful medicine for cancer.
Various other substances found in cinobufacini / huachansu / ch’ansu and the various Bufo toad venoms have the ability to reverse multi-drug resistance in cancer cells while simultaneously regulating and balancing the immune response. Cinobufacini also is known to have the ability to significantly reduce pain associated with cancer.
Cinobufacini / Huachansu / Ch’ansu and the Bufo frog venoms have a very low toxicity and few side effects. Those who work with Sapito need to be aware of what trauma is and how trauma impacts the body. Negative side effects from Sapito are usually caused by trauma that was not fully processed during a single Sapito trip. This is why we recommend that people who are new to the sacred medicines begin with more than one Sapito trip over the course of a number of days to ensure that the content that arises for release can be fully processed.
Bufadienolides and Indole Alkaloids
Active ingredients in cinobufacini include the bufadienolides as well as indole alkaloids. All toads in the Bufo genus have these substances in their secretions, but different species each have different proportions of the substances. Nonetheless, even at very low doses, bufadienolides and the bufagins that are produced when toad venom is heated cause cancer cells to stop growing.
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