No searchy help :(. My english teacher made a Biblical reference to salt being used to cleanse (disinfect) wounds. Don’t know if this works or not. Any help?
While you’re at it… tell us if cow urine helps too ! 
(yep I saw the 13th Warrior)
Well, if you think about it, salt was used to preserve food, the only way it could do this is if it killed the bacteria related to spoilage, so it certainly could be used to disinfect a wound, however, it’d probably hurt like hell (then again, how many disinfectants don’t?).
I don’t think it’s matter of killing bacteria directly, per se, but more of that fact that salt draws moisture out of things, things includes the water both inside your own cells, and water in the bacteria. So, the bacteria shrivel up and die from lack of moisture, and the ones that are tougher eventualy die from lack of food, because they eat your cells for food, as well as other things in/arouhd your cells and blood, and if the salt already killed or made useless all of those things, then there’s nothing left to eat.
The action of the salt as you describe certainly is killing directly. Sodium chloride is just one of the salts which can be used as a disinfectant. Here’s a water purifier that uses common salt and I found a number of other links that refer to salt as disinfectants, examples here and here.
Cheers,
Kiwi Fruit
What was the Bible chapter and verse? I’m wondering if there could be a misunderstanding there, because I’ve only heard the phrase “to pour salt in a wound” in reference to making it worse, increasing the pain or trauma, not as cleansing it.
Putting salt on a wound is painful, hence the expression. Whether it cleanses the wound is beside the point.
I’m no theologian, but I can’t for the life of me find any Biblical reference to cleaning wounds with salt. The closest I could find was this:
While this story is an allegory of Jerusalem, it does make reference to cleaning a newborn baby with salt. Still not anywhere close to wound cleansing. Color me cofused.
I imagine so, as human urine does. And yes, I know this from personal experience.(Whaddaya want, I was in the woods with no Walgreens in sight!)
Salt works well, but hurts like…well, like salt in a wound. I won’t use it if there’s *anything * else available. It’s best saved for those oogey pus-filled things, because it dries out everything. Honey’s my favorite - no sting, no fuss, just quick healing fun. When my son was little, he used to love it when I put honey on half his “owie” and triple antibiotic ointment on the other half. The honey half always healed faster, with no redness, and he loved to show his grandma his “halvsie owie.”
Salt kills bacteria by drawing out the water in the cells via osmosis. A high concentration of sugars, as in honey, would do the same thing I’d think.
When I was a much younger, smaller person I had a festering scab on one knee that just wouldn’t heal. My mother sprinkled alum on it, alum being used in pickling much like salt is-to draw the water out of the pickles and make them crunchy. Well, my knee healed up in no time. And I screamed like a banshee as soon as the alum made contact with my tender flesh. I sure wouldn’t try that again unless I had no other options.