Lice

Lice

A while back, after staying at one of the "country hotels" in Madagascar's rain forest, I developed an itchy case of lice.

At least I think I had lice. My 65-year-old eyes were too weak to see any real lice crawling over me. Perhaps it was just my imagination. But even if I just imagined those lice, there could not have been a more appropriate place to do so. The hotel was filthy and very bug-ridden.

Since I didn't have any offhand knowledge of herbal lice remedies, I threaded my way through the tropical foliage to a good doctor. My friend Linnea Smith, M.D., searched but saw no lice. Just in case, however, she gave me a bottle of Kwell shampoo, the classic lice medicine. I dutifully shampooed. Well, I must have had lice or a similar infestation, because after that Kwell treatment, my itch-misery ceased.

Lice are a familiar--and "lousy"--problem for some ten million Americans each year. That adds up to a lot of Kwell and other delousing products. But what else is there? Here goes.

Green Pharmacy for Lice

Few herbal reference books recommend botanical remedies for lice, so I hope herbalists notice this chapter and begin including lice-killing herbs (pediculicides) in their works. Here are a few herbs that can send lice packing.

Neem (Azadiracta indica) and turmeric (Curcuma longa). In one study done in India, researchers treated 814 people complaining of lice with a combination of these two herbal remedies.

Neem is a large oaklike tree that's native to India and is now planted around the subtropical world, including Florida and Southern California. The leaves and seed oil contain compounds that appear to be active against many insect pests. For this reason, U.S. companies that market nontoxic pesticides now offer several neem products to organic farmers. (Some friends of mine in Hawaii are now growing and harvesting neem.)

Turmeric has a long history in Asian folklore as a vermin killer, and it's especially good at fighting scabies, which are parasitic mites. It makes sense that researchers would try turmeric for lice. In one study, they prepared a neem-turmeric paste by pulverizing fresh neem leaves and turmeric root (four parts neem to one part turmeric). The people in this study rubbed the paste all over their bodies and allowed it to dry. They repeated the treatment until they no longer felt or saw lice. Meanwhile, they also boiled their clothes and bedding, a standard recommendation for delousing.

Researchers reported that 98 percent of the people in the study were completely cured within 3 to 15 days. They also noted that the 2 percent who remained infested had not followed the program.

Sweetflag (Acorus calamus). The American species of this plant, which grows in temperate regions around the world, has proven lice-killing properties. The aromatic root is pounded into a powder and either made into poultice or rubbed directly onto the afflicted areas.