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Mahes Visvalingam
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Some Experiences with Natural Medicine
and related observations

 

Cauliflower Wart : Thuja and Banana 

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2001 - 2005 :

 

In autumn 2001, I got some splinters into the index finger in my right hand. Since I am right handed and could not get them out, I tried dowsing it with white spirit, vinegar, lemon juice and anything else which I felt might disinfect and rot the wood, and ignored the irritation.  But it developed into a cauliflower type wart, which swells and becomes spongy when wetted by showering, washing-up etc.  By summer 2004, it reached the size of a pea and was becoming painful when knocked.  From time to time the wart would split and bleed.

 

I took Thuja 6x in Sep 2004; this dried up the wart into a hard lump but the wart would re-grow after a while.  Someone else tried Thuja and it also changed the appearance of the cluster of warts on his back after a couple of doses but did not eliminate them even after completing a course of treatment.  I took nearly 2 bottles of Weleda Thuja 6x before giving it up.

 

In May 2005, Anne Niven - a reflexologist from Dronfield in Derbyshire - suggested banana peel.  I tried taping banana peel to a troublesome corn and the wart.  The skin around the periphery of the corn and of the wart became spongy by the next morning and it was possible to pick this dead skin off with a sterilised needle.  One repeat treatment of the corn almost completely removed it and I was able to wear all my shoes again without pain.  Over the course of about a fortnight, there was further exfoliation of the skin around the wart and several tiny splinters came up to the surface and they had to picked off (quite a painful affair with some bleeding since the flesh had grown into the wood). 

 

The wart reduced from the size of a pea to that of a split Mysore (orange) lentil and then to a flattened mung bean.  At this stage, I went abroad in early Jun 05 and did not treat the wart, which got bigger within a fortnight.  The thin skin of Pisang Emas (the little Golden Banana) did not seem to have much of an effect.  By 19th Jun, the wart had re-grown into a fissured hard black lump (see photo - 19th June 2005).  I tried rubbing it with the skin of a type of banana with a thicker skin similar to that sold in the UK.  This had an immediate effect on the wart - by the next day, the skin turned whitish especially along the fissures.  However, it looks as if neither Thuja nor banana skin can remove warts on their own.

 

19th June 2005
13th Oct 2005

On return to UK, I took another single dose of 2 pills of Thuja 6x, which dried, reduced and hardened the wart as it had done before.  I kept rubbing the wart with banana skin and scratched off the dry skin with my nails.  I took one pill of Thuja every fortnight to deter re-growth.  By 26th Sept, the wart had nearly gone (see photo 13th Oct). The skin is still discoloured but there is no scarring. 
 

I have since found the following:

  1. http://www.whatreallyworks.co.uk/start/kidszone.asp?article_ID=481

    *****Five Star Tip: Have you heard of the bizarre banana remedy? The healing mucilage found inside banana peel has been shown to help verrucas and other warts disappear. To try this, tape the inside peel of a blackened over-ripe banana over the verruca or wart, cover this with an elastoplast and leave on overnight. Do this for three nights and on the fourth, add a few drops of Tea Tree oil before the banana and tape. Maintain this treatment for 2-3 weeks and watch the wart blacken as it dies off

  1. On 25 July 2006, I noticed that the banana peel remedy at the University of Maryland Centre for Intergrative Medicine.
     

  2. On 4 Sep 2006, i came across this post at Country Cures, Natural History Museum.

Banana & Thuja may not help

Please note that there are different types of warts and they may have different causes and cures. 

  1. Banana alone did not help a friend with plantar warts on the soles of her feet.

  2. Thuja alone dried up a crop of flattish warts on the back of someone I know.  There were tiny black spots in most of the shrivelled warts, which are still there a year later.

Update
 My skin has now regained its pigmentation and even I cannot tell where the wart had been.  This is surprising since I suffer from vitiligo and banana peel does not appear to be a cure for it.

 

Please see your doctor - troublesome warts/growths can be removed surgically.   Surgery has not left a scar in the case of someone I know.  I took the route I did because I wanted to test Alternative Therapies.

 

If you have found some other treatment which has worked for you, please let us know through the web log on Corns and Warts.  Please click here for relevant information on Community Server.

 

Disclaimer

© Mahes Visvalingam, July 2006

Last updated on 25/02/10