# Castor Oil in Folk Medicine



## Guest (Jan 8, 2007)

This was in an email newsletter I subscribe to. I urge caution, as the castor bean is toxic. I'm not sure how toxic the oil is.

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Castor Oil

an excerpt from 

âFolk Medicine, A Vermont Doctorâs Guide to Good Healthâ

by D.C. Jarvis MD 

âOne cannot study Vermont folk medicine many years without becoming interested in Castor Oil for the versatile place it occupies in therapeutic measures. I am not now referring to its classic cathartic action, but rather to its local action on the skin, the tissues beneath the skin.



My first awareness of external uses of castor oil came when a successful rural general practitioner told me that he used castor oil for removal of warts. I began to collect various uses, among them the following:



1. The method of dealing with warts is to apply the oil night and morning to the wart, rubbing it 20 times or so, to work the oil well into the excrescence.

2. Castor oil, I learned, is a favorite application for an ulcer on the body.

3. Among elderly native Vermont women, connection with the various necessities of midwifery, it was common knowledge that castor oil was applied to the navel of a newborn infant if for any reason it showed difficulty in healing.

4. Castor oil is applied to the breasts to increase the flow of milk.

5. If the eye develops redness and irritation, one drop of castor oil in the eye makes it more comfortable and relieves irritation.

6. If little children fail to show a proper growth and development of the hair on the head, castor oil should be applied to the head twice a week at bedtime. The oil is rubbed thoroughly into the scalp, is allowed to remain overnight, and in the morning removed by a shampoo. By using the oil twice a week until a satisfactory change in the hair is established, the health of the hair can be maintained by applying this treatment once in two weeks or once a month.

7. Castor oil, applied to the eyelashes at bedtime three times a week, will thicken them and make them grow longer. The same treatment applies to eyebrow growth.

8. Castor oil is used in the eyes of hunting dogs to clear up an eye condition produced by running through grass.

9. In a chest cold or bronchitis, (left out because treatment uses spirits of turpentine)

10. In many farm homes a bottle of castor oil is always kept on hand. And people who know the ways of folk medicine are quick to apply castor oil with a feather to any cut, abrasion, or sore on the body.

11. When hemorrhoids come outside the anal ring, castor oil will soften them so that they may be reversed.

12. Twice a week, or more often if the feet are working overtime, the feet may be rubbed down at bedtime with castor oil. Cotton socks are slipped on and the oil left on overnight. In the morning the skin is like velvet, and generally all the tired, sore feeling will have disappeared. In the same way castor oil can be used night and morning to soften corns and calluses and remove the soreness. Castor oil is considered a specific remedy for soft corns.


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