From native tradition to the realm of modern herbal therapy, few natural health formulas can share such a worthy lineage:

Rene Cassie, R.N.	Dr. Charles Brusch, M.D.	Elaine Alexander

Historical Background

Possibly the world�s greatest herbal discovery was found in the small town of Haileybury in northern Ontario. One night, in 1922, at the hospital there, the head nurse, Rene Caisse, was making her rounds. She met an elderly lady patient dying of old age who was being given a bath. Rene noticed an unusual marking on her breast and spoke to her about it. The woman told her the following story:

In the early 1890�s she had come from England to be with her prospector husband in northern Ontario, and one day she noticed a lump in her breast. They were worried, so her husband spoke to the medicine man of the local Ojibway tribe, with whom he had made friends. The medicine man suggested that the wife drink the tea that the Indians used for their own people.

Being skeptical, they decided instead to travel by foot, canoe and horse, to the general hospital in Toronto, 500 miles to the south, to find out what the problem was. Once at the hospital, their worst fears were confirmed. She did have the serious problem they suspected. As usual the only recommended treatment available was surgery. Keep in mind that this was 1892. There were no such treatments as chemo or radiation!! The prospector and his wife had known a friend with the same problem. The friend had accepted surgery, and was now dead. Being more skeptical of this procedure than the Indian remedy, they went back north and the wife started taking the concoction. Within 2 months she began to notice a change, and after a year of taking this tea daily, there was no sign of the disease, nor did it ever return.

Rene persuaded the woman to pass the Indian remedy on to her. She was given the names of 8 different herbs, which Rene wrote down on a piece of paper and put it in her pocket. She didn�t think of it anymore until 2 years later, when her aunt had been diagnosed with a major stomach growth. Her liver was involved too, and the specialists had given up hope. Rene and her aunt�s physician, Dr. Arnold Fisher, decided to try the tea. Rene gathered the herbs from the wild, or bought them from a supply house, brewed the tea, and gave it to her aunt while the doctor monitored. Her aunt�s health turned around in two months and she was declared free of the disease in every area of her body a year later. She lived for another 20 years.

After this, Rene and Dr. Fisher started experimenting with the recipe, as researchers will do, to make it the best it could be. They wanted to find out which herb was the most effective in reducing tumour sizes, by injecting the individual herbs into the muscle tissue. During this process they also discovered that certain of the herbs needed to be taken orally to assist the cleansing activity. This led to the development of a four-herb formula, which always was administered as: One herb by injection and three by mouth. Over the next few decades, more and more people found out about the tea, and more and more terminally ill patients were being sent to Rene�s clinic for help. Some of them did not survive, but many others did, living another 15 to 20 years after the doctors had declared them terminal.

During these early years, the remedy, came to the attention of the medical authorities. Twice Rene was almost arrested for practicing medicine without a license. However, when the authorities with the arrest warrants understood what she was doing, and that she was not charging for her services, they went away without serving the warrants. Rene also went to the Passavant hospital in Chicago where she treated and helped 30 terminally ill people. The doctors who monitored her work there, concluded that Rene�s treatment �prolonged life, relieved pain, and broke down the mass of the growths.�

Many petitions were signed, one of them even garnering 55,000 names. She had support from people in all walks of life. Nevertheless, in the end Rene�s work was �officially� stopped by the government in 1942. The Commission which looked at Rene�s treatment refused to approve her remedy without full disclosure of the ingredients, and Rene was fearful of her remedy either disappearing or being changed if she disclosed it. She had kept the formula secret, and therefore was no longer permitted to treat people.

In 1958, she formed a partnership with Dr. Charles Brusch of Cambridge, MA. He had been the personal physician to President John F. Kennedy. Dr. Brusch was a well-known and very respected physician, with degrees in surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics, and psychiatry. He was known for his open mindedness about other treatment modalities, and for his use of them in his clinic. When Rene and Dr. Brusch began their partnership, he knew she had begun with eight herbs, and he also knew that the Indians did not know about injections, so they perfected the formula by bringing it as close as they could to the original 8 herbs with which she had started in 1922. The partners worked on the blend to make it as synergistically active as possible, so it could all be taken orally just as the Indians had originally used it. In 1978 Rene Caisse passed away at the age of 91, leaving the full eight-herb formula they had developed, worked on, and perfected to her partner Dr. Charles Brusch.

In 1984, Dr. Brusch was interviewed by a long-time radio producer and broadcaster, Elaine Alexander, who broadcast out of Vancouver, Canada. Elaine aired programs on many controversial alternative healing methods, including a couple on this herbal tea. The listener response to the programs on the tea, from people suffering with some major illnesses, was massive. Over the next 2 years, seven 2-hour programs were produced covering every aspect of this incredible healing tea. Elaine and Dr. Brusch became friends. He was impressed by her long research of the subject, and her genuine interest. In 1988, they legally became partners, deciding to try to get this herbal remedy out to the public as a tea rather than as a medicine.

The great demand created for this tea persuaded Elaine to look for an herbal company with integrity to manufacture and distribute it for her. In 1992 she was introduced to Flora Manufacturing & Distributing Ltd., and signed a contract with them. Flora was well recognized and respected for their stringent quality standards and state-of-the-art technology. The manufacturing facility is certified by Quality Assurance International, a third party organic certification agency. Flora also has contracts with organic growers who supply the highest quality herbs, which are guaranteed for purity and potency.

At this time many varieties of the four herbs formula were emerging on the market, so to avoid confusion, the final formula, as developed and expanded by Rene and Dr. Brusch was named Flor*Essence. This eight herb Flor*Essence tea is available through most fine health food stores in North America, as well as in many countries around the world.