Certificate In Herbal First Aid & DIY Herbal First Aid Kit

These are useful external treatments for wounds as they allow the plant’s medicinal constituents to penetrate deeper and help float out foreign material. Soaks and compresses are basically strong tea preparations. They are easy to prepare and need only basic equipment. With soaks, the wound is immersed directly into the tea. Compresses are prepared by soaking a cloth in the tea

and then applying the cloth directly to the wound. In practical terms, soaks are often used on lower extremities such as hands, forearms, and feet because they are easier to put into a tub of tea.

The equipment includes a heat source, water, a container for boiling water, herbs, and a tub to soak the body part in. Two and a half gallon plastic tubs are useful for hand and foot soaks (the most commonly needed). You may need a bucket to soak a wound further up on a leg. To clean the container, use soap and water and then bleach or iodine to sterilize it. Be sure to clean

thoroughly between each patient and wear gloves while cleaning. An alternative to tub containers is to pour the tea into a thick plastic garbage bag and soak the body part in the bag. An advantage of this is that the bag can be thrown out afterward.

Both soaks and compresses should be very warm, but not too hot, which may damage the tissue. Once used, the tea should not be reused. After preparing the tea but before using it, pour some of the tea into a cup for the patient to drink, as most of these teas are useful internally as well as externally.

Tinctures can be put directly into the water as a substitute for the herb tea, but this can be expensive, as a lot of tincture may be needed to make it medicinally active. But this is a useful alternative when all you have are tinctures.

Some of the categories of plants for soaks are antiseptics, antimicrobials, antiinflammatories, astringents, and vulneraries.

Soak Preparation

Boil water and pour it onto the medicinal plants. Use enough plant material to make a strong tea. Pour the tea into an appropriate sized container. Soak the wounded area for at least 15 minutes, sometimes a few times daily with changes of tea water in between. It is helpful if the soak water is kept warm to hot, so refresh the water to keep it warm as needed.

Compress Preparation

This is similar to soak preparation, but the tea is usually made in a pot so that it can be kept warm on a stove. Soak a clean cloth in the tea and remove it. When it is still very warm, but not too hot, apply it directly to the wound.

A hot water bottle can be put on top to keep it warm. Refresh the cloth in the tea every 5–10 minutes so that the compress tea remains medicinally viable

Activated charcoal is used to adsorb a wide variety of toxins and other substances. Adsorption is the property of holding substances tightly to a surface. It is different from absorption. For example, a sponge absorbs water throughout its body.

The activated charcoal poultice is applied after the wound has been cleaned. It is spread on the dressing before it is affixed.

There are two types of activated charcoal poultices, a direct preparation and a “sandwich” preparation. The advantage to the direct preparation is that it may adsorb more infectious matter, but the powder also gets into the wound and will need to be cleaned out. With the sandwich poultice, less powder gets in the wound, but it may not be quite as effective. Take these into consideration when deciding which type to use in wound treatment.

Preparation for both of these starts with about a 2-3 mm thick layer of the moistened powder (“slurry”) spread on a gauze pad. With the direct preparation, the slurry side is placed directly on top of the wound. With the sandwich poultice, another gauze is placed on top of the moistened powder so the powder is in between the two gauze pads. This is then placed on top of the wound. It needs to be moist enough to wick up through the gauze.

Generally the slurry provides enough moisture. Try to avoid either of them being too wet, as this impairs the ability of the wound to heal.