What is black salve? Apple Cider Vinegar exposes deadly therapy

You may have noticed the use of black salve in Apple Cider Vinegar, an illegal alternative therapy for skin cancer. Not only is it real, but it’s been linked to a series of horrifying cases – including a death. 

Apple Cider Vinegar has just landed on Netflix, delving into the true story of Belle Gibson (Kaitlyn Dever), the Australian wellness influencer who lied about having terminal brain cancer and the thousands of dollars she claimed to have donated to charities.

When the truth emerged, Belle wasn’t the only one who came under fire. Thanks to her hugely successful Whole Pantry app and book, both Apple and Penguin publishers were criticized for their lack of due diligence. 

Before then, Belle built up millions of followers on social media, where she made false claims about curing her cancer without modern medicine and promoted pseudoscientific therapies. But it’s her friend Milla (Alycia Debnam-Carey) who gets caught up with black salve. Warning: spoilers ahead and some may find this content distressing.

What is black salve?

Black salve is topical balm traditionally containing two core ingredients: bloodroot, a flowering plant included in the poppy family and native to eastern North America; and zinc chloride, a corrosive chemical compound. 

Netflix

Despite warnings from medical professionals, black salve is often promoted as a safe and natural alternative treatment for skin cancer, among other forms of the disease and ailments. There is no scientific evidence to back these claims. 

As stated in a case report published by PubMed Central, “The history of black salve being viewed as a complementary and alternative medicine can be traced back to the mid-1800s when American surgeon Jesse Weldon Fell suggested the herbal remedy could be used to treat skin cancer.

“In the years that followed, entrepreneurs and business opportunists would attempt to market, sell, and disseminate information regarding this misbranded and unapproved herbal compound. 

Netflix

“By 1950, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would block the shipment and distribution of all black salve formulations due to the corrosive properties of black salve formulations and consumer risks of delayed healthcare treatment.”

In fact, there are a number of cases reporting adverse reactions such as tissue destruction and the formation of eschars, pieces of dead tissue that are cast off from the surface of the skin. 

Its use can even be fatal. As such, the sale of black salve is illegal in many countries, including in Australia where Apple Cider Vinegar is set. 

The tragic case of Helen Lawson

Although Milla doesn’t die from black salve in the Netflix series, a real-life nurse from Australia did after using it to treat ovarian cancer in 2018. 

As reported by The Age, Helen Lawson had been a respected emergency department nurse. Her loved ones said she discovered a lump in her pelvic region in January 2017, while a follow-up scan showed a growth on her ovary.

However, rather than receive modern cancer treatment including surgery, the 50-year-old went to Dennis Wayne Jensen, a self-described healer who claimed to have cured his own brain tumor twice. 

Belinda Davies, Helen’s partner of 21 years, was left shocked by what she saw during their sessions. 

She told the outlet, “He put his hands on her stomach and would breathe out like he was trying to blow away the cancer, telling us that the cancer was gone, and there was only a tiny little bit still there. And here she was so swollen and distended and just unbelievably ill.”

Helen was offered surgery for the cancer but she pulled out at the last minute. Belinda said, “She came home and said she wasn’t having a surgery now.

“She said Denn [Jensen] said the surgery is not going to work, and I’m just a number to them, and the black salve will draw out the cancer and the black salve will do what the surgeons can’t.

“I had a huge fight with her. I was just saying, ‘This is insane, give yourself a chance. For God’s sake, just give yourself a chance.’”

Belinda was left shocked when Helen came home one day with the tar-like ointment across her stomach. “It rots the skin away. It looks like third-degree burns,” Belinda added. “It was just disgusting.”

Helen’s sister-in-law, Deb Davies, also shared images of the wounds with the Health Complaints Commissioner after her death. 

“You have never seen anything like what happened to Helen. It is so confronting,” she said. “Literally above her pubic bone, all across her abdomen almost up to her rib cage, she was raw, mutilated bubbling flesh.”

Elaborating on the dangers of the salve, Dr Douglas Grose, president of the Cosmetic Physicians College of Australasia, told The Age, “Things like black salve just kill everything, normal skin cells, abnormal skin cells, it doesn’t matter.

“You can’t control it. All you’re doing is killing the full thickness of the skin and allowing it to scar up. It’s a ridiculous technique.”

Another case was highlighted whereby a man from Brisbane used it on the side of his head for four months, leaving him with a gaping hole in his temple. 

Although Jensen maintained his view that black salve works, Victoria’s Health Complaints Commissioner, Karen Cusack, issued him with a temporary order banning him from providing health services. According to the HCR, this was later bumped up to a permanent ban. 

“Jensen is also banned from claiming that he is qualified, able or willing to cure cancer or any other serious illness and from supplying, promoting or recommending any product, therapy or treatment that he claims can cure or treat cancer,” it states. 

Apple Cider Vinegar is streaming on Netflix now. You can also read about the true story behind 1923, the Myka and James Stauffer docu-series, and the new true crime coming to streaming this month.