What can you do for warts on the bottom of the foot (plantar warts)? These warts can be quite painful and hard to treat, though people use a range of home remedies to treat them. One reader champions the use of castor oil vs. warts.
Does Castor Oil Help Plantar Warts?
Q. PLEASE tell the people who are suffering from plantar warts on the bottom of their feet to use castor oil. Your newspaper column did not include this cure. You mentioned soaking warts in hot water, taking desiccated liver tablets, coating with turmeric paste, and covering the wart with the inside of a banana peel. But you did NOT discuss castor oil.
I suffered for years until I found this, and my warts are completely gone and have never returned. That was 10 years ago. It must be COLD-PRESSED, cold processed. Heritage is the best. Apply every day for as long as it takes, and cover with a bandaid or cotton ball. It does take several weeks, but the castor oil starves the virus that the wart is made from. If you could publish this, it could save many people from this awful pain.
Other Readers Share Their Stories on Castor Oil vs. Warts:
A. We have heard for decades that castor oil is amazingly effective against all sorts of warts. Here are just a few stories.
Paul remembers:
“When I was a Tenderfoot in the Boy Scouts (about 1948), we had to hold hands for the opening or closing ceremony every week. I had a big, fuzzy looking wart at the juncture of my ring and little finger and the other boys hated to hold hands with me.
“Somewhere, my mother heard that castor oil would remove warts. I was VERY motivated and applied it possibly 4 or 5 times a day (I kept the little bottle of castor oil in my pocket).
“After just a few weeks, as I applied the castor oil one day, the wart just “rolled” out of its socket. The little socket it left gradually completely healed so I had normal skin there.”
Mary reports:
“I had a wart on my thumb since childhood. I tried everything but it always came back. I read on People’s Pharmacy about using castor oil on knees and joints and started using it. My joints were feeling so much better. While telling a friend about using the castor oil, she said her grandmother had put it on the warts on her hand as a child. In a week they were gone. I then looked at my thumb and lo and behold the wart on it was gone. The skin is smooth with not a trace of roughness:-) Thanks to the castor oil I think it is gone forever. I don’t know if it will work for plantar warts but castor oil is cheap and worth a try.”
Share your favorite wart story below. Let us know what worked and what didn’t. There are a few reports in the medical literature of people developing allergic reactions or rashes to wart removers containing castor oil (Lodi et al, Contact Dermatitis, Apr. 1992; Tabar et al, Contact Dermatitis, July 1993).
Revised 12-4-17
