ABSTRACT
Laetrile's history has been complex, tortuous, and kaleidoscopic. Two men, each named Ernst T. Krebs, father and son, bring Laetrile to market and dominate its early years. Their backgrounds may prove instructive. In the intervening years Dr. Krebs had continued to seek new therapeutic entities. Before 1951, when Laetrile surfaced surely in the public record, he had been involved with both cancer treatments and apricot kernels. Some versions of the Laetrile legend traced the drug's origin to Dr. Krebs' researches in the 1920s aimed at making bootleg liquor palatable. The earlier tale that Dr. Krebs had told about Laetrile's beginning dated its birth to 1951. Ernst Krebs, Jr., who coined the name Laetrile, had come home to California after peripatetic schooling. The 1950 article, seeing great promise in the enzyme chymotrypsin, did not mention Laetrile. The Food and Drug Administration had watched the Laetrile venture from its early days.
