How To Make Herbal Poultice For Pain From Turmeric And Custard Apple Leaves

A poultice is a mushy mixture or substance that is usually made from herbs and other natural ingredients and is used to treat injuries, sprains, muscle aches, tendonitis, pain, inflammation and skin problems. Another name for poultice is cataplasm and is usually applied externally. In this article I will tell you how to make poultice from turmeric and custard apple leaves. This particular poultice is good for treating strains, sprains, inflammation and muscle pains.

A few years ago I pulled my Achilles tendon and could not walk. My grandfather made this exact poultice and by the following morning I was able to walk and within three days my tendon was healed. Follow the instructions and you will have a natural sprain, pain and anti-inflammatory topical treatment.

Turmeric is a root that resembles ginger and extract is used to make dyes and as an added ingredient in yellow curry. Turmeric is what gives curry its yellow color and can also be used fresh or in powdered form.

This very aromatic root is used in many dishes around the world especially in South East Asian cuisines. The fresh root has a more intense flavor than the powdered form and must be used with care when cooking. Personally I prefer the fresh turmeric root when making curries.

Turmeric has been found to have medicinal properties that include

• reduces the risk of leukemia in children
• study in mice showed it prevented cancer from spreading to the breast
• Antiseptic and antibacterial
• prevents many cancers from metastasizing
• natural painkiller and cox-2 inhibitor.

There are so many medicinal uses that I could not list them here. For information on the medicinal values of turmeric click here! Turmeric Medicinal Information.

The custard apple is a fruit that is mainly found in South East Asia, Africa, India and Australia. This plant is very popular in Jamaica and the leaves are used for medicinal purposes. Custard apple is also known as Bull's heart or Bullock's heart and prefers warm climatic conditions. Maybe that is why it thrives so well in Jamaica.

The fruit is quite creamy in texture with brown seeds and when the fruit is ripe the skin is pinkish in color. The leaves when crushed are natural remedy for boils, pain, ulcers and abscesses.

This is pretty simple to make and takes just a few minutes so long as you have your ingredients handy.

Here is a list of all the things you will need:-

• 12 custard apple leaves
• 3 roots fresh turmeric
• a kitchen mortar and pestle or a flat surface with a pestle
• a long bandage or cloth to use to bandage the poultice to affected are

Method: You may cut the leaves smaller if you like. Pound the leaves in your mortar into fine pieces. Leaves will be moist but not mushy. Cut the turmeric into pieces and add to pounded leaves and pound into a pulp. Pound both turmeric and leaves together until a bit mushy. Pound as fine as possible. Poultice will be moist but not wet, this is fine. Place poultice in the center of cloth and wrap around affected area.

Change poultice once daily. The best time to apply the poultice is just before bed. The poultice can be made without the custard apple leaves but wont be as intense and may take a little longer for the injury to heal. This is a great natural healing medicine.

Note: Poultice will stain cloth. The skin will have a stain mark for a few days after removing poultice.