Thursday, May 10, 2007

Neem!

Back when I thought I had scabies (that was a rough time for me) I started researching a natural treatment for la sarna (scabies). Scabies is a skin parasite, little tiny bugs that burrow in the skin, especially in between the fingers, on the wrist, back of knees and groin area. Evidently it gets to be a big problem here in Nicaragua during the invierno (which we are approaching right now) and the only treatment the clinic offers is a very harsh chemical soap. So a gentle sarna treatment is what we needed. Through several books, websites and conversations I came to the conclusion that a treatment of neem, tumeric and onion skin would be the perfect solution.
Neem (Azadirachta indica) trees are amazing, and at the center of several intellectual property rights disputes in India. The tree is indigenous to subtropical Asia and has been used for forever in various applications in India as almost every part of the tree can be used. The wood is soft and antimicrobial and therefore the branches are snapped off and en vez de toothbrushes. The leaves can be used as an organic insecticide, which is what I will be doing for the scabies treatment. The neem leaves are gentle enough to use on even the most sensitive skin as both a scabies treatment, mosquito repellant and general skin treatment. The fruit and seed of the tree are often pressed into the luxurious oil which is used in India as a hair beautification treatment.
So in my sarna treatment I am planning on making both a soap and a cream. The cream will go on the body and left to dry, then washed off with the soap. The soap will be made with a neem infused oil (when I made this the neem really infused the oil, and it smells of garlic butter), some neem oil, onion skin tea, and lye. The cream is to be made with crushed neem leaves, tumeric and glycerin (a by product from our biodiesel project!).
I am very excited about this neem treatment as neem is absolutely EVERYWHERE here. I am going to cosechar (harvest) some neem leaves and seeds today and start drying the seeds in my new solar dryer. When I leave the JHC I hope to have enough dried neem seeds to last them until next May!
P.S. I didn't have scabies after all. Just an allergic reaction. It cleared up, I'm fine now.

Labels: ,

3 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

yeah right you scabie baby

May 10, 2007 at 2:18 PM  
Blogger Kaleena said...

scabies... yikes, that could've been bad!!! I was telling a friend that Sarah thought that she had parasites, and my friend said that when they came home from Costa Rica that her friend had a parasite in her eye... you could see it swimming around! How creepy is that?!
love!
ps- should we send sarah back with anything for you? perhaps some oil to scent your scabies treatment?

May 12, 2007 at 2:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Amiable dispatch and this fill someone in on helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank you you as your information.

February 14, 2010 at 6:26 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home