When we received a phonecall from an elderly gentleman extolling the virtues of our Universal Herbal Ointment we knew that we were onto something special.

Bert's Story

Bert had been suffering from an extensive leg ulcer for over twelve months and even though he had community nurses  treating it and  changing dressings twice a week there had been no improvement and the medical team was considering amputation of his leg below the knee.  

Sadly Bert's wife has passed away a year or so previously.  One day he was looking in his medicine cabinet and found an old jar of our Universal Herbal Ointment his wife has had used to help with mosquito bites. 

Now men being men he was game to try anything to avoid losing his leg - so on he slapped some of Moon Haven's Universal Herbal Ointment.

Well two days later he was calling us for more... "Miraculous" he called it!

Apparently the skin around the edges of the ulcer was starting to grow and he could see small pinpoints of yellow in the middle of the wound as skin was forming (this is called epithelialization).  Two weeks later Bert called us again to inform us that his ulcer had now had a complete covering of skin over it and that he no longer had to have it dressed.  In fact his community nurse didn't need to visit any more!

Of course Bert still had severe circulation problems in his lower legs due to venous insufficiency and still had to be under medical care to monitor the situation but the risk of losing his legs had now receded and life was a lot easier for him.

Scientific Research & Clinical Trials 

Now of course we understood from a traditional herbalists point of view why Bert's ulcer healed so well.  We have chosen to use a number of herbs in our Universal Herbal ointment that encourage wound healing. 

Calendula would have to be the premier herb for promoting this healing.  We decided that it might be appropriate to check out what the scientific community had to say about Calendula. 

Not surprisingly we came across a 2005 journal article which explained that applying a Calendula based ointment reduced the total surface area of venous leg ulcers in their subjects by 41.71% over a 3 week period.  This was compared with the control group who were treated with the accepted saline dressing regime.  This group experience a reduction in wound surface area of 14.52% over the same period.(see reference below)

This is a fantastic result for the humble Calendula... but not one we are surprised by.  In fact Calendula has so many more applications than wound healing... that is why we use it in many of our products... from skin care to muscle rubs this herb is truly universal. 

[reference Duran V, Matic M, Jovanovć M, Mimica N, Gajinov Z, Poljacki M, Boza P.Results of the clinical examination of an ointment with marigold (Calendula officinalis) extract in the treatment of venous leg ulcers.