Fact-check: No, the herb fagonia cannot cure cancer

Posts, viewed multiple times on Twitter, are falsely claiming that consuming the desert plant, fagonia, can cure cancer.

The claim is false.

Claim

“I have seen 50% of last-stage cancer disappear with the use of fagonia herb in two months,” wrote a Twitter user on May 24, “It is a green powder that has been crushed after cutting and cleaning fresh herbs.”

This tweet had received 11 retweets and 21 likes, at the time of writing.

A similar claim was shared in 2019. In it, the social media user alleges that in addition to curing cancer the herb can also treat hepatitis A, B, C and thalassemia.

Fact

Pakistani doctors Geo Fact Check spoke to say there is no scientific evidence as yet to prove that fagonia can cure any kind of cancer.

Dr Usman Ahmad, the head of medical oncology at the Lahore-based Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, told Geo Fact Check via email, “There is no concrete, scientific proof available currently that it [fagonia] can cure cancer on its own.”

While Dr Qasim Mahmood Buttar, the chairperson of the department of medical oncology at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad also said there was “insufficient scientific evidence” as of now.

“This [herb] is not recommended by any place, any therapy, any cancer society or any alternative medicine,” he said, over the phone.

Separately, Dr Mehwish Shehzadi, a medical oncologist at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi, told Geo Fact Check via WhatsApp that no evidence has been found regarding this. “I wish it were, but in real life these all are rumours.”

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