# Survival > Bushcraft Medicine >  Kerosene as an antiseptic?

## Wildthang

When I was a kid, every time my dad or me got a cut, he would pour aome kerosene on the wound. And please do not try this just because I posted this. But the funny thing is it never made us sick, and the wound never got infected.
Has anybody ever heard of this?

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## hunter63

Well,...... for me it was tobacco juice.....LOL.
Not a recommendation.

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## kyratshooter

Being a bit older than you WT, I remember many of the old standards.

kerosene was a universal proudct, used for cleaning, disinfecting cuts and all manner of uses.  One remedy I remember was if you stepped on a nail you soaked a biscuit in kero and bandaged it to the puncture.  Rattle-snakebite was treated the same way.  By the time I came along the yankees had invaded with tetnus shots so my information is from two uncles that experienced this treatment.  Both lived.

Kero was rubbed freely on the shoe tops and pants cuffs to keep down chigger bites and was used on the bites if you got them.  It was espically effective if mixed with powdered sulphur.  

A mush of kero and powdered sulphur, with a kero soaked cloth wick, was used as a fumigating fog to get rid of insects (usually fleas, coaches or bedbugs) in the house.  It would kill every living thing inside those walls including cats, dogs, goldfish or parakeets as well as the bugs.  You could substitute black powder (gunpowder) if you had no sulpur.

Another old standby was Listerine.  It was a universal antiseptic and it did work!  Still does but has fallen into disuse.  I could take the place of alcahol and did a good job of cleansing instruments for minor splinter-pulling, blister piercing and the like.  It was one of the first sterilizing agents accepted by the medical community and was used to sterilize the operating theatre when Queen Victoria gave birth to her children.

We also had what we refered too as "Blue Salve".  I can not find it on the internet and do not remember the brand name.  I suspect it was little more than petrolium jelly with camphors and a blue tint, but we thought it worked miricles.  We used it on ourselves and on any of the animals that were injured.

Then there was Vicks Vapo-rub.  If you did not like that stuff you'd better not tell any of my kinfolk you were not feeling well!

There was also a codine based yellow cough medicine that was standard in many homes.  Tasted terrible but did the job!  That was a perscription med but the doctors never hesitated to write the script.  Things were not as tight as they are today.  You could still buy paregoric over the counter.

And the final and most thoroughly efficient southern home remedy, Black Draugh.  They were the main sponsor for Porter Wagoner on the Grand Old Opery fo 100 years and he had a catchy jingle he sang for the product.  The lyrics went: "Black Draugh helps you feel fresh and clean inside".

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## Pal334

It is amazing we did not die as kids :Smile:    Our stand by on the farm for cuts, nail punctures, etc  was a sort of paste,,,kerosene mixed with sugar. Stung like all get out but must have worked, we all have our limbs :Smile:

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## kyratshooter

Yep, and any kind of sting was treated with baking soda.

My granny once crushed asprin tablets and made a paste when I stuck my hand in a yellow jacket nest.  They say you forget pain, but I still remember that incident and it was nearly 55 years ago!

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## 1stimestar

Yep, stepped on a nail and mamaw soaked my foot in it.

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## mwp

Here on the coast it has been used Never heard of it making anyone sick. I am 58 and as far back as I can remember it has been used

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## Wildthang

> Being a bit older than you WT, I remember many of the old standards.
> 
> kerosene was a universal proudct, used for cleaning, disinfecting cuts and all manner of uses.  One remedy I remember was if you stepped on a nail you soaked a biscuit in kero and bandaged it to the puncture.  Rattle-snakebite was treated the same way.  By the time I came along the yankees had invaded with tetnus shots so my information is from two uncles that experienced this treatment.  Both lived.
> 
> Kero was rubbed freely on the shoe tops and pants cuffs to keep down chigger bites and was used on the bites if you got them.  It was espically effective if mixed with powdered sulphur.  
> 
> A mush of kero and powdered sulphur, with a kero soaked cloth wick, was used as a fumigating fog to get rid of insects (usually fleas, coaches or bedbugs) in the house.  It would kill every living thing inside those walls including cats, dogs, goldfish or parakeets as well as the bugs.  You could substitute black powder (gunpowder) if you had no sulpur.
> 
> Another old standby was Listerine.  It was a universal antiseptic and it did work!  Still does but has fallen into disuse.  I could take the place of alcahol and did a good job of cleansing instruments for minor splinter-pulling, blister piercing and the like.  It was one of the first sterilizing agents accepted by the medical community and was used to sterilize the operating theatre when Queen Victoria gave birth to her children.
> ...


Now you have brought back another old memory, well maybe a nightmare. I remember dad watching Porter Wagoner and the Grand Ole Opry and I think he would have had a breakdown if he missed those shows every week. I was just a little kid and those shows bored me to tears. I even remember that ole dude that talked on the phone to somebody named Sadie.............who was that guy?
And my mom always worried about us kids being constipated and if she even thought we were, out came the Black Drought or Milk of Magnesia! How we kept form pooping the bed I really dont't know. Either one of those majic formulas would fairly set you free and it felt anything but clean when we exploded like a water baloon  :Scared:

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## Jimmyq

Calomine lotion for sunburns and my mom still insists Jagermeister is a medicine for stomach ailments.  :Smile:  We didn't use kerosene but we did use gas to clean stuff like carburetors and greasy hands, wait, carburetor whats that now? lol

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## 1stimestar

Oh yea, Calamine lotion for mosquito bites.  Pink dotted childhood memories.

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## hunter63

Lots of products are still made with "pine tar" as a major ingredient...still have a little tin of 'drawing salve" for slivers and "risin's" pimples and boils...

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## jfeatherjohn

I've got Campho Phenique (sp?) in my med kit; I still think it is superior in teating any insect bite/sting.
I recently stumbled on brokronian chloride, known when I was a kid as merthiolate. I had forgotten all about it. It is antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal. So, it will treat a cold sore, athlelete's foot and keep a wound clean.
It was actually hard to find; I bought a dozen towlettes and a 120 ml bottle on e-bay.

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## Wildthang

> I've got Campho Phenique (sp?) in my med kit; I still think it is superior in teating any insect bite/sting.
> I recently stumbled on brokronian chloride, known when I was a kid as merthiolate. I had forgotten all about it. It is antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal. So, it will treat a cold sore, athlelete's foot and keep a wound clean.
> It was actually hard to find; I bought a dozen towlettes and a 120 ml bottle on e-bay.


Merthiolate doesn't sting near as bad as Iodine!

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## crashdive123

The merthiolate (and mercurachrome) that you are getting today are not the same products that you got when growing up.  Those both contained mercury and have been discontinued/reformulated.   Not sure if the new stuff is better/worse, but it is different.  I guess the good thing is that you won't get mercury poisoning from it.

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## jfeatherjohn

I did look that up, Crash, and the brokronium is now just that. The post-mercuy reports seem very good.

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## hunter63

That stuff was invented to allow you to just put up with the pain of a small cut, and not make a big deal out of it....as the cure was worst than the injury in a lot of cases....
If it don't hurt ya, it isn't doing any good.

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## BENESSE

> That stuff was invented to allow you to just put up with the pain of a small cut, and not make a big deal out of it....as the cure was worst than the injury in a lot of cases....
> *If it don't hurt ya, it isn't doing any good.*


That brings spanking to mind.

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## hunter63

It's truely a wonder I survived childhood......at least the first part of it....DW keeps asking when I'm gonna grow up.....LOL

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## knife nut

When I was a little kid, we had Tajo (sp) oil. It smelled like a bottle of kerosine

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## Bushman

back in NZ we used kero on damn near everything, cut, bites, scratches.....drawing out splinters.

Used it on wire rope sprags in the bush felling timber :Thumbs Up: 

when a kid the Uncle used to dose the cows and any nearby kids with a mix of molasses and sulphur, poured down your throat from a beer bottle, whether you wanted it or not  :Scared:

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## Rick

Probably explains why you look a wee bit like a donkey and let guys ride on your back.

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## Bushman

Ahahahahah  :Smile:

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## Scotticism101

> Calomine lotion for sunburns and my mom still insists Jagermeister is a medicine for stomach ailments.  We didn't use kerosene but we did use gas to clean stuff like carburetors and greasy hands, wait, carburetor whats that now? lol


When I lived in Germany for a year, I learned about Jagermeister and similar products.  Made from a variety of herbs, these liquors were actually made (in part) to aid in digestion after a large meal.  If you've got a mildly upset stomach or you've just eaten too much, take ONE shot of an herb-based liquor with 40%ABV and you'll feel better in no time at all.  I'm not saying it's true 'medicine' in that sense of the word, but it does work!

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## lenadi

> Now you have brought back another old memory, well maybe a nightmare. I remember dad watching Porter Wagoner and the Grand Ole Opry and I think he would have had a breakdown if he missed those shows every week. I was just a little kid and those shows bored me to tears. I even remember that ole dude that talked on the phone to somebody named Sadie.............who was that guy?
> And my mom always worried about us kids being constipated and if she even thought we were, out came the Black Drought or Milk of Magnesia! How we kept form pooping the bed I really dont't know. Either one of those majic formulas would fairly set you free and it felt anything but clean when we exploded like a water baloon


That guy on Porter Wagoner's show was Speck Rhodes, I believe; RFD channel shows reruns.

As for kerosene, my grandmother told me that it was sometimes used internally- for what, I'm not sure.  She was born in 1909.

Sent from my SCH-I405 using Tapatalk 2

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## DSJohnson

I bet that the kerosene worked so well because it was fairly sterile after having been distilled. In my family it was the "sugar and kerosene paste with a brown paper cover" method.  It seems to have worked well.

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## Old GI

> That brings spanking to mind.


Which came first, the spanking or the only real effective treatment - Mommy kissing it to make it better?  Make no mistake, both were handed out frequently (and I never deserved one of them!).

Vicks was very big in my family as well.  Even had the swallow the stuff! "Your sister is getting a cold; eat a teaspoon of this while I rub it on your chest"

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## Wildthang

> Which came first, the spanking or the only real effective treatment - Mommy kissing it to make it better?  Make no mistake, both were handed out frequently (and I never deserved one of them!).
> 
> Vicks was very big in my family as well.  Even had the swallow the stuff! "Your sister is getting a cold; eat a teaspoon of this while I rub it on your chest"


My mom made us eat that stuff too! It was like eating a giant menthol loogie :Scared:

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## hunter63

> My mom made us eat that stuff too! It was like eating a giant menthol loogie


Bhohahahaha.....choke, spit, cough...Aw man don't DO that...... when I'm drinking coffee........

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## Woodmaster750

Kerosene was a #1 med. kept in the tack room at the ranch. Used on man and beast.

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## tjwilhelm

When I was a kid, kerosene was the standard cure for poison ivy...soak a rag and wrap it on.  Then, stay far away from all the men folk who were smoking!

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## cabingal4

> Well,...... for me it was tobacco juice.....LOL.
> Not a recommendation.


me too hunter63!
anything that happened i got either chewed up cigarette tobacco on my wound
or butter.
i think they use to use turpentine and kerosene in the old days but i dont know about now.
i would be scared to.

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## cabingal4

i rub vicks on everyones feet when they are coughing so badly and put socks on their feet.
i swear it always makes them stop coughing.

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## crashdive123

> i rub vicks on everyones feet when they are coughing so badly and put socks on their feet.
> i swear it always makes them stop coughing.


That's because they don't want it to get any closer to their noses. :Whistling:

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## cabingal4

hee hee.crashdive123...thats probably right.lol.

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## Old GI

Butter always went on burns.  Now, I understand, that is one of the worst things to do for a burn.

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## cabingal4

it sure id GI-but my granny sure thought it was the best cure for a burn.
couldnt u just feel ur-sink cooking more?
lol

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## Tokwan

Wow..the good ol' kerosene stuff we did the same thing here in Malaysia till the late 70's...
I remember when I was a kid and the day I stepped on a nail..I was only wearing rubber flip flops (a norm in for most folks to wear that time in Malaysia..we would use the flip flops wherever we go..)...the simple first aid would be ..take the flip flop and slap it against the cut so that more blood would be drawn out...( we believe at that time that if more blood is drawn out, the bad things on the ail would also be flushed out)..then pour kerosene onto the wound...hehehe

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## TXyakr

Petroleum distillates would be a very last resort for use as an antiseptic or other medication for me. There are generally other alternatives that are far less toxic. The fumes alone from Kerosene are toxic, not as bad as gasoline but still somewhat toxic. I have injested mouthfuls of gasoline while siphoning gas for my dirt motorcycle (Dad taught me to do it, I have no idea why he didn't just buy a container of gas) and it did not give me much of a stomachache but I still would avoid these petrol fuels on or in me. But Kerosene works great to clean off greasy machine parts, just not human parts.

Here is a interesting and disturbing article, people who thought Kerosene cured their cancer. I would guess it more than likely caused cancer. Efficacy rates are most likely NOT scientifically proven.

http://www.health-science-spirit.com/kero.htm

Nigeria has a huge problem with people stealing petroleum from pipelines, many people get killed doing it. Crazy!

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## randyt

kerosene works fairly well on chilblains.

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## Faiaoga

I don't know about kerosene as an antiseptic, but I have used it to kill head lice (my head).  A rag soaked in kerosene can be wrapped over you hair, then removed after an hour or so.  Laundry detergent can clean off the kerosene, then comb carefully to check that the lice are removed.  Harsh, but it works.

At least one survival medicine book I have read recommends a teaspoonful of kerosene to kill intestinal worms.  I do not know from experience, perhaps this kills the host as well the worm.   :Laugh:

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## Adventure Wolf

That sounds like it would BURN (no pun intended)! I never want to try that.

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## Roshansmith

> When I was a kid, every time my dad or me got a cut, he would pour aome kerosene on the wound. And please do not try this just because I posted this. But the funny thing is it never made us sick, and the wound never got infected.
> Has anybody ever heard of this?


Growing up in Sri Lanka my mum used kerosene for all sorts of wounds and it worked like a treat .

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## Rick

If kerosene were a valuable wound treatment doctors and hospitals would use it.

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## Tokwan

Yep..in my youger days..when I was really really young, it would be used as a emergency antiseptic, from nails in your foot to dog bites, then off to the hospital for the ATT shots..

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