Burn Treatment I

I am an herbalist, in Minneapolis, MN. Most of my experiences with wounds and essential oils, are when they’ve been combined with herbs. My first experience with a variation of this burn treatment was while I was in Seattle, attending Bastyr University’s Herbal Sciences program.

One of my classmates was a part-time magician for children’s parties. One of his tricks included the use of flash powder, as a finale’. On one occasion, the flash powder misfired, and burned his hand quite badly. The burn was third degree (probably because he finished the show), with severe blistering and charring over about 60% of the back of his hand.

My friend came to one of our teacher’s for treatment, who recommended a blend of honey, herbs (comfrey and St. John’s wort) blended with oil, and a relatively large amount of Lavender essential oil. The mash was applied over a layer of cheese cloth, and changed daily for several days.

During that time the wound healed quickly and after several days the treatment was changed to oils infused with the herbs, honey, and Lavender essential oil. This was continued for a week, then followed with just St. John’s wort oil with Lavender essential oil, applied topically for several weeks.

I first saw the wound on the second or third day, and was told it looked better already. It was pink, the flesh looked “shredded”, but not inflamed. The patient is African American with very dark skin, and the contrast was striking. After one week, the skin was healed, there was almost no pink left, and after several weeks, there was only the slightest variation of skin texture, but color had returned to normal.

It cannot be said that one part of the formula worked over the other, but I always include Lavender in my burn treatments. (See story II)

Cynthia Thomas

Wound Type

Oils Used

Lavender Essential Oil
Brand unknown
In formula with herbs

Role or Party Involvement

Observer