As I’ve noted repeatedly on this blog, inspiration for the topics that post here come from a myriad of sources. Today’s originated as an article that appeared on the homepage of my browser. Sphagnum peat moss has medicinal uses? I had just gotten 14 bales of sphagnum peat moss for the garden at 85% off. (Well, Aaron got them since he had the truck.) Did we just win the lottery?
Not quite, as my further research revealed.
The article is a historical piece that first appeared in Smithsonian Magazine in 2017 (and misspells sphagnum several times). And like the researchers who observed the orangutan applying a poultice to his wounds and thought they’d identified something unknown in the animal world, researchers who “identified” the medicinal uses of sphagnum moss during World War I thought they had discovered something new.
As soldier deaths mounted in late 1914, doctors became desperate. And one surgeon with an interest in botany recalled something of the historical use of sphagnum moss to pack soldiers’ wounds. It was used anciently by the Irish in the Battle of Clontarf and later during the Napoleonic and Franco-Prussian wars. We don’t know how ancients knew to apply this moss to their wounds, but they were onto something. Sphagnum moss holds up to 22 times its weight in liquid, so twice as absorptive as cotton, and it is antibacterial as well.
Millions of dressings were produced in Europe and North America to treat the wounded troops. Communities located near the moss bogs organized “moss drives” to collect the life-saving substance. Women, children, and even POWs on both sides were pressed into service.
So why don’t we use moss bandages today? Primarily because of the amount of labor required to collect the moss, but also because scientists say the peat bogs need to be preserved.
And now for the question I had: Can the sphagnum peat moss (which is how the bags are labeled) that I purchased as a soil conditioner from the feed store be used to make antibacterial dressings like were used during WWI? Sadly, it appears, the answer is no. What we purchase at nurseries and the big box stores to use in our gardens has been processed into fine particles and is dead-dead. It should be properly called just peat moss. The sphagnum moss used in bandages is only, to quote the words of the wizard in The Princess Bride, “mostly dead.” As in 90% dead. The dead cells are what absorb the fluids. It should be referred to as sphagnum moss. It is light green and often used in crafting and creative planting presentations.
(All right, I have to admit I am still questioning this. The Canadians harvested their sphagnum moss and then cut it down to size for use in bandages, sewed the bandages, and shipped the bandages to Europe for use in hospitals there. Surely the sphagnum moss would dry out along the way, wouldn’t it? And one reason we buy peat moss for use in the garden is to acidify the soil. So wouldn’t this peat moss, if sewn into bandages, exhibit some of the same properties? Inquiring minds want to know.)
Anyway, as you know, I write primarily on topics that will be of use to my family, and as we live nowhere near any peat bogs, we’re unlikely to ever cut our own moss for medical purposes. So this article is for those of you who do live in such areas, as well as for all those who ever come across the information that sphagnum moss was used to treat soldiers’ wounds and wonder about the potential usage of sphagnum moss in the interesting times that lie ahead.
Links to related posts:
Animals Self-Medicate, Too
Civil War Antibiotics in Georgia
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1584876/pdf/canmedaj00338-0031.pdf
https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/anh.2015.0274?journalCode=anh
Evidently what i've been calling muskeg around work is actually a type of peat bog home to 3 viarities of sphagnum moss. Thanks for the article.
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