20th Century
1902 – John Beard treats cancer patients with enzymes
Scottish embryologist John Beard treats cancer patients with living enzymes extracted from the pancreas. His book “The Enzyme Treatment of Cancer” is published in 1911.
1932 – Ernst Freund and Gisa Kaminer study nutrition against cancer and discover factors that block the immune system in patients with blood cancer.
Ernst Freund, Director of the Cancer Center, Rudolfina-Spitals in Vienna, and his assistant Gisa Kaminer study nutrition against cancer. When they mix cancer cells with blood from healthy patients in a test tube, the cancer cells are destroyed. When they mix cancer cells with the blood from cancer-sick patients, the cancer cells survive. This leads them to believe that the blood of cancer-sick individuals contains an inhibiting element that prevents the immune system’s cells to attack cancer cells.
In 1937, Freund and Kaminer are arrested and expropriated by National Socialists. They flee to England and die a short time later. Soon after, Max Wolf, a physician in New York, takes up their research. Wolf is originally from Vienna, but had remained in the US after his compulsory internship in 1914. He had travlelled back to Vienna regularly and studied under Ernst Freund.
1938 – Max Wolf takes Freund and Kaminer’s research further.
Max Wolf tries to determine the elements that are contained in the blood of healthy patients but absent in the blood of cancer patients. He suspects that the element is an enzyme and carries out numerous tests.
1941 – Adolf Gaschler discovers that tumours can be treated with the Trypsin enzyme
Adolf Gaschler studies the effect of enzyme therapy on malign tumours and chronic inflammation at the Berliner Charité. In 1955, he publishes the results, and explains how trypsin enzyme can be used for treating tumours.
1944 – Max Wolf and Helene Benitez develop an enzyme combination for the treatment of inflammation and degenerative disease.
Max Wolf becomes the Director of the Biological Research Institute of Columbia University, where he continues his research on enzyme therapy. Along with scientist Helene Benitez, Max Wolf carries out thousands of tests in order to isolate and purify enzymes extracted from plant and animal organisms. They develop two exceptionally active enzyme combinations that they call “Wolf-Benitez-Enzyme combinations”. One combination is used for treating inflammations and the other for degenerative diseases. The name “Wolf-Benitez-Enzyme combinations” is later shortened to “Wobenzym”.
1950 – Max Wolf treats the American “high society” with enzymes
He produces his own enzyme combinations in his laboratory but they are not for sale on the market. As in-house physician of the Metropolitan Opera he treats tenors Enrico Caruso and Richard Tauber, orchestra directors and composers Furtwängler and Toscanini, as well as singers Lily Pons, Julie Andrews and Lotte Lehmann. Others who trust his healing abilities include Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Marlene Dietrich, Charlie Chaplin, Spencer Tracy and Gary Cooper, as well as the Bishop of Windsor, Lord Mountbatten and writer Somerset Maugham. Even Pablo Picasso was given enzyme combinations, as we are told in Wolf’s autobiography.
1959 – Karl Ranserger and Max Wolf meet in New York – The enzyme combination WoBe is registered as pharmaceutical product in Spain (1959) and in Germany (1960).
Karl Ransberger, CEO of the Munich enterprise Mucos, an emulsion producer, meets Max Wolf in New York and becomes convinced of the effectiveness of Wolf’s therapy concept. In the meantime, Wolf contracts an Austrian firm for the production of WoBe-enzymes, to make the products more economical and more available to the population. The enzyme combination WoBe is registered in Spain in 1959 and in Germany in 1960 as a pharmaceutical product.
1963 – Another WoBe–enzyme combination for the treatment of cancer and metastasis prophylaxis is approved as a pharmaceutical product in Germany
The enzyme combination developed by Wolf and Benitez, the WoBe-enzyme combination (later called Wobe Mucos E) is approved as medication in Germany under the direction of Karl Ransberger. It is used systemically as well as locally and is approved for the treatment of cancer and metastasis prophylaxis.
1965 to today – The medical use of enzymes is researched in centers around the world
Enzymes are proven effective in the treatment of inflammation, edema, rheumatism, herpes zoster, sinusitis and injuries, as well as to assist post-surgery healing. They are also effective in regulating the immune system and blood flow. Enzymes are proven to be effective and easy to digest. The enzyme combination WOBE-MUCOS E, researched by Karl Ransberger is used as complementary therapy in cancer treatments and chemo- and radiation therapy, as well as against metastasis prophylaxis. Enzyme therapy becomes an essential support to cancer treatment.
WOBE-MUCOS E was taken off the market according to legal formalities in September 2005. Since Wobe-Mucos E had demonstrated its medicinal value and had not been taken off the shelves for reasons of quality or effectiveness, when it was removed from the market, the enzyme product supplies for the treatment of cancer were greatly missed. Nonetheless, in December 2000, a nutraceutical (nutrition supplement) with similar immune-system supportive characteristics is put on the market; it is called Wobe-Mucos NEM.
A research team at the Institute for Biochemistry at the University of Leipzig, lead by Professor Gerd Birkenmeier, is currently studying the therapeutic and prophylactic use of enzymes in modern medicine.
