Boils, Carbuncles, and Furuncles - II

Boils, Carbuncles, and Furuncles (Contd.)

In the early stage, that is when the boil is small and slightly red we can try putting hot pack on the site. Some times the boil will become soft and slowly it will disappear within a day or two. Normally it is not advisable to do pin pricking at home because it can lead to serious infection. It may unnecessarily lead to complications. A number of home remedies can be applied with good results; they avoid direct puncturing of the boil. Here are several inexpensive tricks: 1. Mix freshly cooked white rice with a bit of castor oil and apply to the boil. Cover the paste (poultice) with a plant leaf and apply a tight (but not too tight) bandage to the site. Leave the bandage intact for ten or twelve hours. Hibiscus, castor tree, banana, Four O’clock, gongura – these leaves will work wonders. 2. Instead of rice one can also use a wheat flour paste. 3. Sandalwood paste, particularly freshly ground wet paste also is very effective for boils. It cools the skin (boil) locally and helps in healing fast. 

Traditional (herbal or Ayurvedic) healers use castor, mustard, or neem oil for topical applications. Such oils make the skin soft and prevent additional infections.I should mention here a few (celebrity) cases to highlight the severity of skin diseases. Many people particularly those with brown or dark skin develop pigment (dark) patches due to excessive exposure to sun. One should be careful with sun’s radiation. It can lead to skin cancer – it happened to Sri Ramana, President Jimmy Carter, and senator John McCain. Carl Marx suffered life long with skin problems, particularly boils. 

If a boil, blister, or skin wound happens on outer accessible regions of body, then it is easy to apply bandage or antibiotic ointment (Bacitracin, Boroline, Soframycin). However, some times boils can pop up at very inconvenient places (under arm, inner thighs, etc.) and they can create unbearable pain leading to severe impairment or restricted body movement. If they show up on face – they create embarrassing situations. Often this often happens with facial acne during adolescent growth stage with active hormones. 

Now, internally what to drink or eat? We should try to keep the body in a cool state, in its own natural equilibrium. That means taking good (freshly prepared) food, fresh fruits, juice, yogurt, and buttermilk. Periodically it is advisable to give the skin an oil massage. Often boils happen near the roots of hair; oily skin massage keeps the skin clean, soft, and it helps to retain natural moisture. Avoid as much as possible dry itchy skin situations – this happens in extreme dry hot climate or in cold indoors during winter. 

So, basically we have two or three methods of handling stubborn boils: 1. Take immediate action as soon as it appears. Apply hot pack and massage gently with one of the oils mentioned above. Usually the boil should start improving in appearance. That is, it becomes less red in color and feels a bit soft to the touch. Normally within a few days the skin should return to its normal feel and color. 2. In acute cases we have to resort to minor but very careful local surgery. At this stage one can consult a physician if one can avail easily (within the bounds of cost, accessibility, etc.). Thoroughly clean tools must be used to pin prick the boil. After gentle draining of blood and pus, we have to cover the wound with gauge and keep it dry. In the last stage one can use antibiotic ointment to help in the process of healing. Even a small drop of turmeric mixed mustard oil can seal and heal the broken boil. 3. Applying a poultice is an alternative method to deliberate surgical puncturing. Here we take a warm paste (freshly cooked white rice, wheat flour mixed with castor seed oil) and apply directly to the boil. The poultice is securely fastened to the site with clean leaf (betel leaf, hibiscus, castor seed, banana, etc.) and clean cloth. Usually just one application is enough. Or, one can remove the old bandage and apply a fresh paste after ten or twenty hours.    

According to the Indian Materia Medica  the following help in the management of boils (healing, pressing down, or cracking open): Fig fruit, (country) kanda (Elephant’s Foot Yam, Zamin Kanda/Suran), boiled rice, castor seed, moon plant, fenugreek, thorny amaranthus, onion, tamarind, cilantro (coriander), cumin, clay, gongura, dhaniya, tobacco, sour poyi (Basella alba), drumstick leaves, neem oil, garlic, custard apple, lime, alum, and turmeric. “A stitch in time saves nine” – that proverb holds lot of truth in skin care. Proper nutrition (fruits, buttermilk, vitamin supplements) and a little hygiene do wonders for the skin. Otherwise even a tiny boil can make life unbearable and miserable. This article is no substitute for a doctor’s visit. No AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools were used in writing this article. Copyright 2025 by the author 

Boils, Carbuncles, and Furuncles

Boils, Carbuncles, and Furuncles - I

In several previous articles I emphasized the importance of bodily health. Health, as the Telugu adage goes is the “greatest wealth”. Without it a human being is at the mercy of doctors, nurses, family members, and even moneylenders. With good health one can accomplish a lot; more over health is one of the prerequisites for undertaking the arduous spiritual journey or any other serious mundane pursuit. We’ll be able to control and guide gently the mind to pursue any field of enquiry with good physical health. Be it art, singing, science, or advanced technology – we cannot attempt and complete any decent task without a sound body and its close companion “the sharp agile mind”. 

In this post we turn our attention to the skin, the major organ. Like indoor plants the skin needs proper moisture and moderate exposure to sunlight (vitamin D). Indoors, moisture can be controlled with open windows during spring and summer times. Moisture can also be supplemented with room or house (large) humidifiers during the prolonged dry winter months. The elasticity of skin (suppleness) can be maintained with a simple weekly oil bath. Our mothers and grandmothers used to give children oil bath every Sunday. It also included shampooing of hair with soapnut or shika-kayi (Senegalia rugata) powder. In northern India I witnessed oil bath with mustard oil during winters; at the roadside municipal water taps truck drivers used to vigorously rub mustard oil all over the body and stand in the winter sun. Then an invigorating quick cold-water bath would follow. Though a bit irritating to the eyes mustard oil makes skin very smooth. For some reason such oil baths protect the skin from minor cuts, excessive dryness, and even boils. Our skin gets a bit of oily layer due to the hair (follicles) – this happens naturally during sweating. Excessive soap usage disturbs the skin’s natural defenses.

There is quite a bit of rudimentary knowledge about these skin afflictions (boils, carbuncles, and furuncles, సెగగడ్డ, फोड़ा) on the Internet. They talk about injury to the skin, bacterial (Staph) infection, and the formation of subcutaneous boils, etc. But for the afflicted person (the patient), cure and proper management is paramount. And the remedies must be accessible and affordable to all. So, here I review some of the time tested home remedies. In the early stages when the boil is red, pressing the area with a simple hot pack helps a lot. Warm corn (salt, rice) filled cloth bags or microwave heated wet towels can work as efficient hot packs.

Often skin troubles are ignored, mishandled, or over medicated. Ignoring a boil will not help solve the problem. It can grow in size and become painful. Later the subcutaneous infection will collect pus and slowly becomes unbearable and irritating to the touch. In some instances a simple piercing with clean sterilized tool (scalpel, pin) can help to drain the fluid. Rubbing the piercing tool with (isopropyl) alcohol-dipped swab is sufficient; or, the scalpel can be gently heated in a flame to make it sterile. It is advisable to leave the wound open for natural drainage and let the skin heal naturally. Eventually the ruptured local skin will heal fully and the opening gets closed without any bump, discoloration, or scar. Occasionally some boils may leave a darker patch, a little disconcerting cosmetically but harmless. In complicated situations the uninitiated patient may seek the help of a qualified nurse or physician; skin wounds even small ones can sometimes (though rare) lead to major autoimmune disorders – therefore, one should be very careful in dealing with skin.

First let us look at the remedies, i.e., home remedies that have been thoroughly time (hundreds of years in Ayurvedic and herbal medicine) tested. One need not go into the exact scientific mechanism underlying such methods. For the individual all that matters is efficient, cost effective cure. In the Ayurvedic system boils are often associated with “hotness of the body” or some imbalance. Children develop such skin troubles in the tropics during the sweltering hot high humid climate (i.e., summer) months. This imbalance in the body can be corrected with plenty of nutritious fluids like buttermilk, lemon juice, grape juice, or orange juice. Sherbets, particularly with basil seeds also aid in cooling the body. Adults with blood glucose issues have to be careful with store bought juices – it’s because most commercial juices contain excessive sweeteners (ex: corn syrup, sugar, etc.). Better to stick with home made juice, sherbet, or diluted buttermilk. A simple freshly made lemonade from lime (or lemon) juice with a bit of salt and a pinch of sugar is very helpful in controlling summer thirst. Or, coconut water without all the added ingredients like bisulfite is also a nourishing drink with minerals. We can also prepare a very inexpensive mango drink at home; we used to gently burn raw mango over stove (hot coals) and squeeze the pulp into a glass. Diluted with sufficient chilled water it yields a tasty tangy mango drink for summer time. There was a time in India when many grandmothers, aunts, or maidservants used to be repositories of vast herbal and Ayurvedic remedies (medical knowledge). Once our maid suggested a simple trick for the skin problems: Prepare a soup with small red onions (shallots), a bit of jaggery, and a piece of green pepper. The onion soup can work wonders – it will soothe the body, lessen the imbalance, and cool the body. Even raw onion pieces taken with cooked rice or wheat roti have a beneficial effect on the body. Onions, cucumbers, radish, and fresh tomatoes are used as “salad” in North India; particularly chilled freshly cut salads are a routine during summer months in Delhi. Even in the coastal Andhra some wise people used to grow cucumbers (the vine that grows on pergola or on flat horizontal woven nets or trellis) for a respite during the hot summer months. In fact I tasted the English cucumber first in our rich landlord’s garden. We would enjoy freshly plucked cucumbers with salt and red pepper powder, sitting in the cool shade of a gazebo. Nothing like an organically grown cucumber or a vine ripened tomato!

Often skin care is neglected either due to lack of resources or lack of rudimentary knowledge. Simple things like coconut oil, sesame seed oil, olive oil, mustard oil, or ghee (even butter) do wonders for human skin. At least once a week it is worthwhile to massage the whole body with oil and wash it with besan (the soft Bengal gram dal powder). 

 

(To be Continued) Copyright 2025 by the author