When I was a child, I didn’t stay indoors much. I used to play with other kids in my neighborhood all day long. Of course, this meant injuries were an almost daily occurrence.
But I didn’t care. I was just a kid doing things that every other kid did back then. Whenever I’d come back home, my mother would look at me and sigh, “Chris, not again…”
She would then prepare some cabbage leaves and wrap them around my wounds, using bandages to keep them in place. After a time the swelling would go away, the bruises would be significantly reduced, and cuts would be almost completely healed. And that happened much faster than normal.
We weren’t a wealthy family, so we couldn’t afford to go to the doctor for every minor thing. However, my parents were very knowledgeable about the natural remedies passed on by my grandfather.
For centuries, people all over the world have used cabbage leaves to successfully reduce swelling, pain, and strains. It is high in vitamins and phytonutrients as well as anthocyanins and glutamine, both of which have anti-inflammatory properties.
Furthermore, modern science shows that cabbage contains 2.6% to 5.7% sugars, 1.1% to 2.3% proteins, fixed oil, and mineral salts, including sulfur and phosphorus. The plant also contains vitamin C and S-Methylmethionine, also known as vitamin U, which is antiulcer.
This makes it a very powerful and convenient tool against joint pain, arthritis, and most injuries.
What You’ll Need
- A cabbage (obviously)
- Bandages
- Cellophane
- A cup, hammer or rolling pin (basically anything that gets the job done)
- A cutting board
Related: 40 Bizarre Home Remedies Our Grandparents Taught Us That Actually Work
How to Make Cabbage Bandages
#1. Place cabbage leaves (green or red) on a cutting board, and cut out the hard stem.
#2. Hammer the leaves with any kitchen utensil to gently bruise the leaves in order to release some of the cabbage juices.
#3. Layer the cabbage leaves around the knee or ankle joint until it is completely encased with the leaves.
#4. Hold the leaves in place by wrapping them with bandages.
#5. Wrap all of this up with cellophane in order to hold the warmth and cabbage juice around the skin.
#6. Leave the cabbage leaves wrapped around the joint for at least one hour. If no skin sensitivity is noted, the leaves can be left on overnight.
#7. Unwrap the cabbage leaves when cool and discard.
Here are some of the things cabbage bandages can help you out with:
Eczema
Use cabbage leaf bandages for about one hour.
Asthma
Apply four cabbage leaf bandages on the chest or shoulders for at least four hours.
Arthritis
Pound the cabbage leaves with any kitchen utensil you have on hand (even a simple cup), and apply it directly to the affected area. Wrap it up in a bandage and cellophane to make sure it stays tight so that the skin absorbs the vital nutrients. Leave it on for several hours, and repeat this process until you see a huge improvement.
With all of these benefits, how can you not love cabbage? God has indeed blessed us, and we can gain so much simply by studying his creation.
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This reminds me of a Dr. Gott remedy. Dr. Gott was a newspaper columnist who strongly favored low cost home remedies for non-lethal conditions. He would have favored this remedy. Low cost, non-lethal sprain, cabbage on a joint certainly won’t present any contraindicated conditions. He was strongly opposed to quackery of any sort and would not hesitate to lambaste quack cures for fatal diseases. His motto was if it was low cost, didn’t hurt and was for a less than deadly condition, why not try it? If it worked, wonderful. If it didn’t, no great harm done.
This remedy certainly meets those criteria.
My dad talked of a doctor who would treat a lot of things, skin infections and such being a main one, with brown paper and vinegar, and apparently had lots of success with it.
Crushed cabbage leaves will also dry up breast milk.
How? Applied to the breast of a lactating woman? Eating them? Please amply your comment.
https://www.verywellfamily.com/cabbage-leaves-breastfeeding-and-breast-engorgement-431593
This takes you to an article explaining it….
Lesa: Thanks for the link. It is a topic I would not have thought to look for. Very interesting article. Reducing breast milk is a topic I have not considered for many years but in an EOTW situation with contraceptives in very short supply there will be a lot more babies born and remedies like this will become quite important.
LCC: And hops are recommended to increase breast milk. Under the wort of stress women will find, that’s going to more important, perhaps.
Great article, I’ll be trying this for sure. Along the same lines we managed to cure a very nasty abscess that almost killed one of our Livestock Dogs with homemade cabbage sauerkraut. She was cold-cocked on the side of her head by our lead goat about five years ago (long story), we later figured out her skull was fractured, and after a couple of days she had a baseball-sized lump right over her eyebrow. She scratched at it and opened it up when we weren’t there, although we washed all the pus and gore off, and thoroughly disinfected it afterwards. Despite this effort, a secondary infection developed and she really went down. Lethargic, zero appetite, and clearly dying, with a huge new abscess over her eyebrow.
We figured that since a bacterial infection was killing her, the various lactobacilli strains found in sauerkraut might be able to beat them back. It took almost two weeks of holding sauerkraut compresses against her wound three times a day, but we saw the swelling slightly reduced within the first 48 hours. Even though very weak in those early days she learned to press her head against the compress, so it must have relieved the pain quite a bit. After five days or so most of the swelling was gone, yet we still kept at it until she was too strong to handle any more.
We had no idea of the healing powers of cabbage by itself, at that time we were just after the idea of applying beneficial bacteria onto a very infected wound. Yogurt would have been impossible to stick on her head yet we could wrap sauerkraut into cheese cloth and use that, it sure worked. Apparently it worked on her probable fractured skull as well since a month later she escaped and it took five people to finally capture her. Unfortunately she had a permanent TBI and was thus ruined for working with livestock ever again, yet she was otherwise physically fine.
I’ve seen what fermented shredded cabbage can do with my own eyes, and in the future I’ll certainly try pounded cabbage leaves for injured people parts thanks to this wonderful article.
Chris: Moist tobacco will stop an abscess and not get eaten, usually. Dogs love cabbage and ‘kraut! niio
Sorry left coast chuck, I should have expounded on my comment.
My daughter decided to stop nursing after 3 months and became engorged. The pain was so unbearable she made an appointment with her doctor hoping for some relief. Instead, the doctor told her to take cabbage leaves and crush them by hand and place them in her bra cups several time a day. Not only did the cabbage leaves relieve the pain from being engorged, but it also dried her milk in less than a week.
Your articles are very informative, I pass them along to my family member as well.
Linny: Thanks for enlarging your comment. I suspected that might be the case but wanted confirmation. That is a unique use of cabbage and I would have never stumbled on it on my own.
Chris: Great comment. I would have never thought of applying sauerkraut to an abscess. That is a great tip. I am sure if it works for a dog abscess it would work for a human abscess too. Yogurt as a poultice is a new idea for me too. Again, not something that would have come to my mind.
With modern medicine, I would rather rely on amoxicillin or some other antibiotic for an abscess, but in an EOTW situation where antibiotics are just a dim memory, cures like sauerkraut or yogurt poultices will be what we will have to resort to.
Thanks again to both of you for sharing your real world experiences.That’s three valuable, real world tips from readers of this site. That’s what I find so valuable about this site. Even if the main article doesn’t provide a lot of new or especially useful information, the posts by readers almost always makes up for any shortcomings in the article itself.
This article about crushed cabbage leaves has been especially valuable in my opinion.
Cabbage leaves also very efficiently heal breast mastitis. In this case one just needs to wrap them in fresh cabbage leaves and keep re-applying/changing them 2-3 times a day.
If you are prone to getting mouth sores, or canker sores in your mouth, keep sour kraut on hand. Drain off some of the liquid. Hold it in your mouth, then swish it around, then swallow. Then enjoy the sour kraut.Tutor
Work with a guy in the service who was married to an English woman who was into home remedies. This story reminded me of one he told me about, he would suffer from hemorrhoids and she would have him sit on cabbage leaves for a couple hours….. I had a chuckle back then at his expense, but he swore it worked. ?
So confused. Where did the “warmth” come from? Do you first heat the cabbage leaves before you hammer them? What am I missing?
The warmth your body produces.
Also, cabbage juice is indispensable in treating stomach ulcers!
Good to know and timely. I had a friend in Penna ask what all the fuss was his grandparents made about cabbage. Much thanks for the article! niio
Excelente artigo, parabéns e obrigado por ensinar a todos.
Many are best eaten , not external , but the outter layer of many trees will do the same thing
cambien layer , used medically
Trees
wonder if kempshi will do same thing