Alum: Treating Infection & Gangrene

I recently found out about a little known use for alum in treating infection and gangrene.


My cousin's mother used alum to clear up a nasty case of gangrene in his brother following his return from WWII. He arrived home with fever, a debilitating knee injury and a severe case of gangrene in the knee wound. Although it appeared he would lose the leg and possibly his life, his mother was determined he would not only live, but keep the leg, too. While walking with a slight limp for the remainder of his life, he did, in fact, keep the leg.


She began by immediately cleaning the wound with soap and hot water. She followed this by packing the wound with powdered alum and bandaging it comfortably, but snuggly. She changed the bandage twice a day, thoroughly cleaning the wound each time she would unwrap the bandages and removing the powdered alum from the wound. She would then repack it once again and rewrap it. Mom would continue this action until the wound appeared to be healing nicely, with no redness, inflammation or soreness around the wound, but a nice healthy pink appeared and was only tender to the touch.


It is important to know that cleaning the infection multiple times a day is an absolute must. Alum, while wonderful at drawing infection out, will also dry out the whole entire area where it's applied. If left untended to over even a short period of time, it will cause the wound to be unable to heal at all. Please keep this in mind when using alum to help draw out infection and clean and reapply and re-bandage wounds frequently.