A high school student won her regional science fair by proving that the extract of a long-used Native American plant, chokeberries, can target and kill cancer cells in-vitro. This discovery, or rather, re-discovery, could in the future be a huge breakthrough in cancer treatment.
Native American High School Student Discovers That Her Culture’s Traditional Chokeberry Pudding Can Fight Cancer
High school student, Destany “Sky” Pete, of the Shoshone and Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in Idaho and Nevada, developed an interest in the medicinal properties of the chokecherry, which is still harvested and consumed in her community today. Back in 2017, she decided to make this the topic of her science fair project. This decision came following a conversation that she had with one of her tribe’s elders. They said that the reason their people were getting so sick so often was because they were not consuming the traditional foods so much anymore. The most important of these, they said, was the chokeberry pudding. This inspired her to study the chokeberry and see what it was all about. (1)