CUPBOARD REMEDIES

MEDICAL treatments inspired by the larder. This week: Onions for scarring WHEN the skin is broken, the body produces more of a protein called collagen, which rebuilds skin to seal the wound.

The resulting scar usually fades over time, but sometimes this process goes wrong and too much collagen is laid out, resulting in a raised scar (known as a hypertrophic scar).

In a trial of 40 patients who had undergone surgery, doctors at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand applied either a gel containing onion extract or placebo gel to the wound site.

Twenty per cent of those who received the onion gel didn’t develop a scar compared with 3.3 per cent of those who had a placebo gel. Those in the placebo group were also twice as likely to have hypertrophic scars.

One theory is that a compound in onions called quercetin may reduce the production of collagen, resulting in less visible scarring.