Chinese Remedies for Lice

Lice are parasitic insects that bite and suck blood. These annoying insects can inhabit the head, body and pubic areas of the human body, and they have been troubling humankind for thousands of years. Not only do they cause itching, but they have also been linked to the transmission of infectious diseases. According to the Mayo Clinic, even if your personal hygiene is excellent, you can still catch lice from someone else. If you don't seek the correct treatment, you might find yourself with a problem that keeps returning.

Vinegar

• A Chinese publication called the "Barefoot Doctor's Handbook" gives detailed instructions on how to get rid of head lice. It recommends first washing hair in vinegar, as this will loosen the nits which are firmly attached. Nits are the eggs that female lice attach to the hair shaft with a special glue. The eggs are oval in shape and remain stuck to the hair after the lice have hatched. In a bad infestation there can be hundreds of nits in a person's hair. After the vinegar wash, the nits can then be combed out with a bamboo comb. Combing is the only way to effectively remove nits and requires diligence and patience. Note that the vinegar will not kill the lice; it has been shown that lice are able to survive all sorts of home remedies, including being slathered in mayonnaise, vegetable oil and vinegar.

Stemona Root

• Once the nits have been removed, the next step recommended in the "Barefoot Doctor's Handbook" is to rinse the hair in Stemona root, known in Chinese as baibu. This is a flowering plant whose root is used frequently in Chinese herbal medicine to moisten the lungs and stop coughing, as well as for eliminating lice. Known by the pharmaceutical name of radix stemonae, the plant is harvested either in spring, before new growth has sprouted, or in fall, after the parts above the ground have withered. The handbook's instructions include boiling the stemona root in water for half an hour, straining it, and then massaging it into the hair. Once this has been completed, the head should be wrapped overnight in a towel. By the next day, according to the publication, the lice should be dead.

  Some chinese herbal lice remedies use the Sophora root (Ku Shen) in combination with Stemona root. The Sophora root is believed to soothe the itching associated with lice infestation.

Ancient Remedies

• It is believed that as early as the year 1200 BC, the Chinese used mercury and arsenical compounds to eliminate troublesome body lice. Mercury and arsenic are both toxic to humans, so don't try that one at home. Another ancient Chinese remedy for lice was the topical application of ching-hao, the leaves of sweet wormwood. Ching-hao is still used in Chinese medicine today, but for the treatment of parasitic diseases such as those caused by blood flukes.