As I research in my efforts to become more prepared, I stumble across some pretty interesting stuff. I never know where inspiration will come from or where it will lead. Sometimes my curiosity is piqued. Other days are mind-blowing. Today it’s the latter.
So a couple of articles during all the research done on mold and its prevention for blog posts that appeared in the last week mentioned the ancient use of bread mold poultices to treat infected skin wounds.[1] And it makes some sense. After all, penicillin was first isolated from bread mold. And just to be clear here, while bread can grow all kinds of different molds, the one we’re interested in is the blue mold—the one that starts out as little white dots that could be mistaken for flour but which soon develop into a blue-green mold.
Over 4,000 years ago, ancient Egyptians used bread mold to treat infected skin wounds, as is recorded in some of their medical texts.[2] The practice was recommended by English herbalists in the 1600s and 1700s and was even used in rural America, though it was noted that the Americans soaked the bread in milk first.[3] Serbian peasants did the same, and a Greek king living around 1600 BC noted that a peasant woman scraped mold from cheese to treat his wounded soldiers. The Chinese used moldy soy beans in a similar manner. [4]
It all sounds a little sketchy to me. I’d rather take a pill and call it good. That’s probably why I store a little penicillin here.
However, I also acknowledge that there will be those who didn’t prepare with pretty little penicillin pills. Or they exhausted their supplies before we were able to turn the lights back on in this country. And when their loved ones develop an infection, they will be desperate.
Some folks plan to DIY their penicillin. I blogged about that idea, which I don’t think is really great, last year. As I wrote then:
You've got to have all the equipment and a sterile laboratory. You've got to be able to maintain an incubating temperature of about 70°F for a few weeks, and you've got to make your own culture medium. Expensive chemicals with short shelf lives are also needed. On top of all that, you've got to make a boatload to treat one single infection.
And because penicillin is unstable and thus has a short shelf life, you’ve always got to have some in production. Furthermore, penicillin is cleared through the kidneys. Most of it never even makes it into the bloodstream to get carried wherever it’s needed to fight an infection. Using a bread mold poultice takes the penicillin right to the source of the infection.
Unfortunately, we don’t really have any details on how the bread mold poultice was used. How often was it changed? How moldy, exactly, does the bread need to be? The early medical practitioners were using whole grain breads. Would bread mold grown on white bread work as well?
There are loads of other ways to manage an infected wound—usnea and juniper tinctures, sugar, honey, oh, and heck, keeping it clean and using regular antibiotics. There’s even maggot therapy, also a proven treatment. So while moldy bread wouldn’t be my first choice for treatment, I suspect I’d prefer it to maggots when my choices dwindle.
Links to related posts:
DIY Penicillin: Do You Really Want To Go There?
Penicillin Primer for Preppers
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/wellness/1988/11/01/the-infection-fighters/6ef5cfb4-1cf3-49cb-9e2b-16f5e55fe6a0/
[2] https://www.jstor.org/stable/1260294
[3] https://www.jstor.org/stable/1260294
[4] https://www.jstor.org/stable/1260294
Jennifer the nature of the injuries must be taken into your wound care plan. Injuries from knives, swords and clubs (MOST Farm Injuries BTW) are low velocity and stopping bleeding, CLEANING the wounds, treating for trauma and setting bones stuff. Shallow wounds are better than deep ones for home cures.
ReplyDeleteInjuries from low velocity bullets (civil war, pistols etc.) create deeper and more traumatic injuries.
Injuries from high velocity bullets is shattering body systems. Very hard to treat without full Trama Services.
In home care situations simply keeping it clean and changing dressing AND keeping the patient well fed nutritionally cures a lot of wound issues AND other hands-on nursing care. Having folks CARE about you is a proven factor in healing.
I often wonder IF the bulk of the moldy bread stories was more the above factors than the "Magic Mold". Plenty of not so good for you molds out there.
Don't get me wrong, a lot of herbal medicines have some noted health benefits (often cleaning or nutritional) but I often wonder at the % of active ingredients and IF the hands on nursing care and sanitation of washing the wounds with the 'Herbal Waters" actually was a major factor in successful healing.
After all who ever hears of the Failures of Herbal Healing?
The human body has an amazing self-healing ability IF we allow it to work.
Our stocks of fish pen and granulated sugars and so on will run out. My ability to surgically clean wounds without Anesthesia and the massive supporting materials and manpower needs is nearly nil.
Buddy strapping limbs-splinting to encourage bones to heal in anatomically correct manner, dental limited to tooth pulling and gum care-tooth brushing.
As distasteful as you see maggot therapy it IS a well proven and successful may to treat non-surgically infected wounds that otherwise would progress to septic shock and death, Despite all bandage changing.
Maggots bring their own anesthesia, and antiseptics to the job. They are my plan for deeper wounds and badly infected wounds.
Poor nutrition, stress and ongoing infections are the factors we must deal with to improve the opportunity of our injured to heal.
Agreed on all counts, Michael, especially regarding having people care for you. Have you got a source for the directions for raising sterile maggots? I'm sure there's something out there somewhere; I just haven't run across it yet.
DeleteStep one go to Wikipedia for surgical maggots. Learn how they are used. Note the common source is the Green Bottle Fly. Click on the link of Green Bottle Fly and learn their breeding habits. Carrion. Catch and secure green bottle flies in an a easily cleaned series of containers. Small fish bowl aquariums are nice. Supply your brood with well cooked meat as to keep it as clean as possible. Keep living conditions with in Green Bottle Flies limits. Commercial providers use radiation for sterilization of the carrion so this is more basic version.
ReplyDeleteSeveral generations of green bottle flies are bred with the next generation of eggs planted in the well cooked carrion moved to a new clean aquarium. Each time you reduce the initial "Other Pathogens" out of the next generation of files-maggots. Sterile Maggots we will never produce, they are living creatures. But we can make them as clean as we can.
Jennifer we need to learn about "Sterile" vs Surgically Clean Vs Grossly contaminated wounds. Putting a sterile dressing over a grossly contaminated wound doesn't "clean the Wound". Washing all we can out and packing it with surgically clean moist dressing helps the bodies normal process to clean it's wounds out. Changing those dressing as needed also reduces the Bio loading of bad pathogenic materials in that wound.
The Maggot Therapy as the Wikipedia article discusses so well is a pack of mini-surgeons cleaning out dead tissue, allowing the body to recover and heal.
Prevention is indeed worth a lot more than treatment. Gloves, eye protection, heavy aprons are more to protect YOU from sharp and often dirty tools as well as easier to wash than your normal clothing.
That method of producing maggots sounds do-able. Perhaps using canning jars instead of fish bowls?
DeleteThis is the only site that will send me to bed wondering if I should raise some maggots! :)
ReplyDeleteI think prepping all the other supplies would be more desirable!
DeleteMaggots work differently than antibiotics. Maggots remove infected or dead tissue. Things that would otherwise need surgery can be treated with maggots with less overall tissue loss. However, if you are desperate enough to self use maggots, they are one of the less gross things to be found in the situation. The wound is likely to be oozing weird colors, smell, and the alternative to maggots may be amputation or death.
ReplyDeleteMoldy bread may not have the desired mold growing on it. Not all bread molds are penicillium. Not all strains of penicillium are beneficial. Some are harmful. If you’re desperate enough to try using bread mold, you may not have any. This is not a good practice to prep for.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It's not MY Plan A, B, C, D, or even E. It's a possibly viable suggestion for those who chose not to prepare. As noted above, it was used historically. And as also noted above, not all bread molds are penicillium. I have neighbors who have not prepared medical supplies. I'm not likely to share my penicillin with them. How about you? Are you sharing your pills? Are you offering a historical treatment? Or nothing at all? Not trying to sound snarky, I'm genuinely interested.
DeleteI got certified in herbal medicine
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