I have a friend tht obtained a small cut during football practice. This is not a problem, but it has spread into a large infected scrape. What herbs can get the infection to go away and wat can help the pain associated with the injury?
She could always go to the doctor or use peroxide to help clean the wound, however, since you asked I will give you some information on garlic.
Garlic is a mild and natural antibiotic that she could use in ointment form to treat the area. You could also try a garlic infusion that can then be made into a compress or rinse.
Garlic Infusion:
Cut up six cloves of garlic and add them to one cup of cold water. For a weak infusion let the mixture steep for about 15 minutes. For a stronger infusion let the mixture steep for six hours.
Garlic Oil :(Used in the creation of the Garlic ointment.)
Place ten garlic cloves in a quart jar of olive oil. Let the contents sit for one week before straining either through cheese cloth or a coffee filter. The remaining oil then can be labeled and placed in a bottle for later use.
Garlic Ointment:
Mix one and a half cups of garlic oil with one ounce of beeswax. Put the oil and the wax into a heat-proof jug, place it in a large pan, and place it on the stove. Add water to the pan until the water level is slightly below that of the oil in the jug. Let the water come to a boil and then turn it down to a simmer. Stir the mixture until the beeswax melts and combines with the oil. Remove the jug and turn off the heat. Allow the jug to cool. Before the ointment sets, place it into clean jars. Don't cover the jars until the mixture has completely set. Once set, label and seal the jars for use at later time.
Garlic has a vary strong smell, so this may not be the herb she wants to use, but it's something to look into if she's interested in herbal medicine and healing.
Source:
"The Magic of Garlic" by S.Y. Zenith
-Article was published in the Llewellyn's 2004 Herbal Almanac. (p. 257-270)
As for pain, I can't really think of any off the top of my head.
Garlic is better as an ingested natural antibiotic . For a skin infection you can try anything that has an antiseptic quality. Honey, tea tree oil, witch hazel, eucalyptus, etc.
Make sure it doesn't have veins around it that become darker, that's blood poisoning and needs immediate medical care. The veins spread out more and more as the poisoning becomes worse.
If there are no dark veins and its just red and sore I suggest using a compress of strong chamomile for 10-20min and then applying raw honey afterward. An alternative would be coconut oil used as a salve.
But keep a close eye on it. If they get a fever or you see the veins darken around the wound, get them to the hospital asap. Blood poisoning is nothing to play with.
The methods listed above would work great. Personally, I wouldn't choose garlic as it is rather pungent in its smell, and if not diluted properly can make your skin feel like its burning.. like the sensation you get when you stick a whole clove of garlic in your mouth! Not that people do that often..
Honey is great for healing, and I would definitely recommend it. Here is a method I usually use for infected cuts.
First carefully clean the wound using a antibacterial of your choice. After this, topical applications lavender oil can be applied to a fresh cut or scrape, this will help to improve the rate of which your friend's tissue is healing; and will also help to kill germs.
To minimize scar tissue afterwards use tea tree oil. This oil also disinfects all wounds and can be utilized instead of the lavender oil if preferred. After the oil your friend has chose out of these has dried, apply cooling honey to the wound rather thinly, and let it dry.
Bandage the wound as soon as this has been carried out. To prevent infection from spreading, the bandages must be changed three or four times every day. In addition at each change of the bandage, further treatment can be done by spreading either a soothing aloe vera gel or a calendula cream directly on the wound before your friend applies the new bandage; this treatment will help in further relieving or in limiting the inflammation. This will also stop or halt the spread of infection, and lastly it will quicken up skin healing.
I follow pretty much a very similar method to FallenStarz. Instead of lavender or tea tree oil, I use calendula infused oil; but you can use any of those that you can find the quickest.
I have a three year old daughter, so you can imagine that I have to deal with a lot of scrapes, both infected and non-infected!
