Comments on: Green Chile Season & Another Case of Cellulitis

By: Kristen

Kristen — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 13:10:03 +0000

I agree- plantain is great for stings. I am a beekeeper and we also have a lot of yellowjackets around this year… my two children (4 and 5) have been stung numerous times over the last months and now they look for plantain growing so they know where to run get a leaf when they get stung. Mom still has to chew it up, because apparently the taste is Yucky, but we all agree it takes the edge off a sting.

By: Helena

Helena — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:40:45 +0000

Up here in Upstate New York, we don’t have scorpians, but lots of wasps, snakes and bees. Honey and lavender work wonders for stings & bites (as well as for burns), vinegar as a topical astringent wash and coolant, and often recommend sea salt washings to cleanse before infection sets in. I’ve had customers, mostly men, with work place injuries where fingers or nails were sliced off on machinery. First response was to soak in salt water to prevent any infection setting in. Wild lettuce, topically, soothes the skin area, which is in my toners and skin creams. I’m not sure about scorpian stings but I bet they hurt as much as a wasp. Anise has antibacterial and antiseptic qualities.

Plantain by itself, I have used only for cuts, on my kids, our dog as well as myself; as I refer to it as nature’s band aid. I haven’t used it alone on bites or stings, as I first apply Black Walnut Hulls, Anise, Calendula Petals, Pine, Nettle, Plantain, Lavender, Jewelweed mixture with honey and apple cider vinegar that I have readily available. Peach tincture is not common here, although we live in the country-side, unfortunately, the trees are crop dusted in the spring. I’m going to try and work with a local farmer in the spring and see if he can spare me some peach flowers/twigs.

I’m glad everything is better now. H-

By: Kiva Rose

Kiva Rose — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:09:53 +0000

Hi Helena,

I appreciate the gesture, but I wonder if these offerings come from your personal experience or are quoted from a book? I would venture to say that Plantain is far more effective for most insect stings and bites, and Wild Lettuce may dull the pain but doesn’t do much for the actual problem….

Also, the problem was not actually the scorpion sting which was fairly minor but the onset of cellulitis afterwards.

Pine resin won’t remove stings btw, but it will help pull out splinters and therefor maybe if you had a stinger stuck in there somewhere….

Thanks for reading,
Kiva

By: Helena

Helena — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:58:09 +0000

Hope this helps. Pine tar to remove stings and/or slivers.

For the stings; here’s a formula: herb + oxymel (honey, old vinegar, sea salt, water used for boiling) used for fever, cough, or bites

Herbs can be: ANISE- which heals all poisonous bites and stings or
ELECAMPANE – folklore used it; According to Pliny, elecampane protects a person from bites of poisonous creatures.
WILD LETTUCE – Medicinal use : fresh burns, poisons, spider stings, snake bites, wounds,

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:27:59 +0000

Sounds like you have your hands full, Kiva!!

Lots of love and hugs to Loba for a speedy recovery…hope that infection continues to resolve easily and quickly!

By: Brittney

Brittney — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:46:27 +0000

I love green chili season! Every where we go we can smell the roasting! My house mate is new to this state and he gets so excited every time we see the roaster at the farmer’s market

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:10:28 +0000

I just got both cellulitis and the gout all at one time. Like Loba my foot swelled up and it turned red and was terrible painful. I was given IV antibiotics, another shot a couple of days later as well as Keflex to kill the infection.

The gout was located at the area of my big toe and it felt as if my foot was broken. The antibiotics did nothing for that.

What did help the gout pain was looking for natural treatment and I found ‘cherries’. I bought a product named Cherrypharm, which is a juice product made from tart cherries. ( an 8 ounce bottle contains the juice of 50 cherries.) And it actually made me able to work without discomfort all night. (I work nights.) I was amazed because prior to that I had a hard time putting my foot down.

I can’t take a lot of medicine because of a diseased liver. So finding this was quite a blessing.

Dave

By: darcey

darcey — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:00:46 +0000

Well, I;ve been using my wood chopping muscles I grew while there to dig 2 ft deep trenches in the ground. Jealous of your green chiles, but not your luck with cellulitis. Icky! I hope loba is feeling better soon!!!
HUGS