How is it promoted for use

In folk medicine, the cassava plant is promoted for treating snakebites, boils, diarrhea, flu, hernia, inflammation, conjunctivitis, sores, and several other problems including cancer. Cassava plants can produce the poisonous substance cyanide as a way to fend off animals trying to eat them. Chewing the plant causes it to release an enzyme called linamarase, and linamarase, in turn, converts a compound in the plant called linamarin into cyanide. Researchers have suggested that this ability might be useful as a form of gene therapy. First, the gene for linamarase could be selectively put into cancer cells. If linamarin were then introduced into the body, cancer cells would break it down and release cyanide only in the area around the cancer cells, killing them. Since normal cells would not have the linamarase gene and would not be able to convert linamarin into cyanide, they would not be affected.