Bruises.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.herbs
From: Rene Mauricio Salazar <rms1754.tam2000.tamu.edu>
Date: 20 Nov 1995 10:41:57 -06
Subject: Re: REMEDY FOR BRUISES

> need advice on how to heal quickly

One remedy I've found pretty useful is the plain, white onion. Cut one in half and rub this into the bruise for about one hour. Swelling should go down considerably. It doesn't smell very good, but it's worth it :^). Eating a cup of chopped onions once a day, four days a week is supposed to be an internal tonic for bruise prevention.

There is some validity to the idea of inflammation reduction using an onion. There are some experiments that have shown white blood cells (releasers of inflammatory mediators) to be affected anti-chemotactically (if memory serves me right) by chemicals in onion juice. For more info, see "Ten Essential Herbs" by Lalitha Thomas.