Mama To Many (Tennessee, Usa) on 04/07/2016:

Well, she is a budding herbalist I suppose. She went straight for the herbal wound powder that we make and keep on hand. She sprinkled it onto the wound to help it to stop bleeding. I think she repeated this several times over a short while. She knew the powder would stop the bleeding. And it did. It helps to form a scab as well.

Here is what was in my wound powder:

1 part plantain leaf powder
1 part omfrey root powder
1/8 part Myrrh gum powder
1 part slippery elm bark powder
1 part Oregon grape root powder

I keep a little jar of this in my kitchen and also one in each car. A friend loves to use this on her pet dogs and cats and has gone through a couple of jars!

Some of those ingredients are pricey. Lalitha Thomas, who wrote "Ten Essential Herbs" just uses equal parts of goldenseal and slippery elm bark powder.

These herb powders have anti-infective properties and also styptic properties (they will stop the bleeding.) The powders mix with blood and form a scab. The scab should not be removed once formed, but if bleeding reoccurs, more powder can be added.

Herb powders like this should NOT be used on puncture wounds. Epsom salt soaks would be better for that. I would also not use this on wounds that were deep and not clean.

I was reminded of the recent story of my daughter and her cat when I cut my finger last night while trimming my son's hair. I have done this several times and a cut on the knuckle is painful and wants to keep opening back up. Last night I put wound powder and a bandaid on it. It helped the pain and stayed the bleeding. Today the cut looks good without a bandaid. And it doesn't hurt at all.

If I were faced with a bleeding wound and I didn't have the above powders on hand, I would mix together 1 part cayenne pepper powder and 2 parts turmeric. The sting from the cayenne would not last long. (I have used it straight on paper cuts and it didn't hurt at all! )

~Mama to Many~