# Alum on Oranges **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 12, 2002, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alum-on-oranges/97907 "2002-03-12T20:16:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2002, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alum-on-oranges/97907/1 "2002-03-12T20:16:13Z")
I saw an old Bouncing Ball cartoon where some guy from Florida was throwing Alum on Orange trees and the Oranges were shrinking. Does Alum cause oranges to shrivel, and if so, do people sabotage crops by alum? ---
**Author:** ![scratch1300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2002, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alum-on-oranges/97907/2 "2002-03-12T20:35:53Z")
I saw a Warner Brothers cartoon in which Tweety the bird gave Sylvester the cat some alum to eat, and Sylvester’s mouth puckered up so much, that Tweety could not fit inside! I would guess that the rate of incidence of orange trees being shriveled by alum-sabotage is about the same as bird-on-cat mouth-shrinkage by the same. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2002, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alum-on-oranges/97907/3 "2002-03-12T21:11:21Z")
I dunno, you ever use a styptic pencil near your mouth, and accidentally taste it? Those Warner Bros. cartoons are documentaries, I tell you. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2002, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alum-on-oranges/97907/4 "2002-03-13T01:28:44Z")
Alum used to be used in pickling. It does draw water out and makes the pickles very crisp. It doesn’t do so instantaneously though, usually you soak the cucumbers in water with alum in it for a few hours and the water inside the protopickles is drawn out osmotically. Of course you have to rinse them thorougly. You can also use lime to do the same thing. Alum isn’t used much anymore because it can give pickles a bad flavor I think. And on a personal note I know of at least one off-label use of the stuff. When I was a kid I was prone to scraped knees that would sometimes get infected and fester. They’d take forever to heal because I kept breaking the wound open again. Once my mother sprinkled some alum on my pus-filled, scabby knee because she said it would dry it up and kill the infection. Which it did actually, microorganisms without water die pretty well. But it stung like you wouldn’t believe! Worse than alcohol and merthiolate put together. I never let her do **that** again. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2002, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alum-on-oranges/97907/5 "2002-03-13T12:09:27Z")
I can’t believe that this thread has gone this far without a Three Stooges reference. We all know that making a cake with alum instead of flour (and you have to make sure to use the big can labeled “ALUM” that everyone keeps next to the flour in the kitchen) will result in instant comedy. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2002, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alum-on-oranges/97907/6 "2002-03-13T12:31:48Z")
I also read that in Victorian times brides would put alum up you-know-where to make their new husbands think they were virgins. But that might be a total urban myth.