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Desert Rangers Treat Sting with Tenderizer

Newspaper Columns, Herb & Home Remedy Q&A August 20, 2007

Q. I was in the high desert of Oregon several years ago, looking for arrowheads. I saw an arrowhead lying beneath some sagebrush and picked it up. I felt a sharp prick on the back of my hand. Later that evening, my hand had started swelling and there was a purplish discoloration around that area. I must have been stung.

I was with my friends "The Desert Rangers," so they knew what to do. We applied Adolph’s meat tenderizer. We learned this treatment from a paramedic when we took a first aid course.

As a little kid, when I got a bee sting, Mom always made a paste of baking soda to put on it. That worked fine too.

A. We have been writing about meat tenderizer for bee, wasp and jellyfish stings since 1975. The enzyme papain derived from papaya breaks down protein. That is why it tenderizes meat. Venom contains proteins, and that may be how this remedy is supposed to work against stings.

Make a thick paste of meat tenderizer with water or vinegar and apply it to the stung area promptly.