Pinyon Sap medicine

[Dharma]

I wanted to share a traditional Navajo medicine with everyone. The Navajo turned me on to this some time ago and it works better than anything else I've tried off the shelf. It's pinyon pine sap. This sap is excellent for healing cuts, scrapes, burns, and chapped hands. You basically have to have the pure sap and melt it into a carrier like some neutral salve or lotion. I couldn't believe what I saw the other day. A Navajo co-worker used it on a very bad second-degree burn and it began to heal within a couple days. I use it on winter-dry hands that crack so deep, they bleed from deep cracks. I put the sap in there and the cracks literally close up overnight. They heal totally within two days. Once I start using it every night, the chapped hands and cracks don't happen at all.

Pinyon sap is found in the Southwest here, but you can find it online from places in New Mexico and Arizona.  I collect it myself here. I can't speak for other pine saps, but I can say Pinyon sap works better than any dry-hands lotion or remedy I've ever tried and I've tried lots of them. It works better than any topical cream for cuts, scrapes, and burns I've ever tried. Ready-to-use pinyon salve is available from a couple places in Arizona, too.

[mullet]

My grandfather's number one remedy when I was growing up was to grab the bottle of Turpentine made from longleaf pine.

[Dharma]

I know that pines have high concentrations of Vitamin C.  Red Cedars, another evergreen, make the best quilt chests and prayer fan boxes since moths and feather lice can't stand the oil in the wood. I found feathers and fletching are stored best with flat cedar in with them to keep any feather lice off when it comes to having acquired wild turkey feathers. I always saw quilts stored in a "cedar chest" to keep moths out of them. And it works. There must be a natural antibiotic and insecticide in evergreens.

[YosemiteBen]

Hey D - I think most of the pines work that way. I hear stories of Ponderosa Pine used that way too!

[stickbender]

     Dharma; like Eddie said, turpentine, was a go to for any cuts, or infections.  There used to be a product call "Apinol" or Apinal, something like that made from turpentine, and it was a multi use medicine.  When I had a case of strep throat, in Montana,Years ago, and we were in the mountains, and I saw a Ponderosa pine, or as they call it a "Bull Pine", with some sap on the outside, so I took, a finger full, and put in my mouth, and just chewed it, and swallowed the juices, and by the time I was down to the trucks, my throat felt a whole lot better, and the next day, it was fine.  I only tried it since my throat was really bothering me, and I knew that the pines here in Florida produced a sap that was antiseptic, so I figured what the heck, it isn't going to poison me.  When I was a kid, I hardly ever wore shoes, and was now and then stepping on nails, and I would hobble home, and my mother would grab the kerosene, and pour it on the wound, and I would "then" put on a pair of socks, and shoes, and go back and do whatever I was doing before I stepped on the old rusty nail.  Never had any infections, or problems with the kerosene, when we didn't have any kerosene, it was turpentine we went for.

                                                                                Wayne

[mullet]

Wayne, I don't know how many nails, broken bottles in the muddy creek and dog bites I had growing up that was doused with Turpentine. And the funny thing is I'm allergic to Tetanus. I've also seen dogs with mange shampooed with it and get cured.

[stickbender]

     Yeah, Eddie, same here.  I finally wised up and started wearing shoes.  But they were tennis shoes.
At least they kept my feet somewhat safe from the broken glass.  My Dad used to use burnt motor oil, and sulphur
for treating mange, on our dogs, or the neighbors dogs.  It worked great.  Never thought about the turpentine. Turpentine is great stuff, and so many uses for it.  From oil painting, to medicine, etc.  I know my Grandfather used to gather pine sap for the turpentine stills, in Alabama, when he was a teenager, and used some sort of handle, with a short length of chain, and a ball with hawks bill blade to cut the slashes on the trees, and then drive in the spiles, and hang the buckets on them.  One day, the blade bounced off of a tree, and sliced his leg, he said he just grabbed a handful of the pine sap, and slathered it on the wound, and cut off a piece of his pants leg, and wrapped it up, and went back to work. It healed up fine.  No sick leave in those days.  You worked, you got paid.  You didn't work, you didn't get paid.   There is a lot of natural healing stuff around, but a lot of it is kept out of the public knowledge.  Like Vinegar.  So many uses for it also.  Sorry I missed the knapp in, but I got a bad head cold, and just came on home.

                                                                                Wayne

[RabidApache]

Pine, cedar, and even mesquite sap is used in treating everything from cuts to sores.
I remembered my grandpa applying cedar sap on horses with saddle sores too. I remember him saying it kept the flies/insects off the wounds and its waterproof.