Q. At Thanksgiving my son-in-law sharpened my knives, but he cut his thumb and finger badly in the process. I quickly said, “Let’s put pepper on it.” His thumb could probably have used a suture, but I live on top of a mountain, far away from a hospital.
He thought I had totally lost my mind, but after he looked it up on his smart phone, he agreed. I had only whole peppercorns, so we had to grind them. Nonetheless, the pepper worked like a charm to stop the bleeding. The cut healed up nicely by the end of the weekend.
I now keep ground black pepper in my first aid kit in my car and in the medicine cabinet. Thank you for alerting me to this remedy.
A. Black pepper (Piper nigrum) has been valued for medicinal and culinary uses since the time of Hippocrates. It is also used in Ayurvedic (traditional Indian) medicine to treat a variety of ills. Normally we caution people to use pepper only for minor cuts and to get medical attention for serious wounds, but we are glad that it worked so well for your son-in-law’s injury.
4/9/18 redirected to: https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/articles/pouring-ground-black-pepper-on-a-cut-stops-its-bleeding/
