Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: katieHaylor on 04/10/2018 12:03:24

Title: Can banana peel help with insect bites?
Post by: katieHaylor on 04/10/2018 12:03:24

Vladimir asks:

Is there truth to the idea of using banana peel to get rid of insect bites, and to make skin look younger? If these are true, what's the best way to go about them?

What do you think?

Title: Re: Can banana peel help with insect bites?
Post by: chris on 07/10/2018 09:50:02

I've not come across this. Eating banana is good for you and will contribute to overall maintained good health, which will in turn be reflected in continued good skin condition; but I don't think bananas have any magic age-defying properties.

As for insect bites, unless you covered yourself completely in banana skins so that the midges could not contact your skin, I don't think that would work either - I've not heard of bananas releasing insect-repellent molecules.

Some plants do though, like eucalyptus, which has been used to good effect in a recent invention: mosquito-repelling socks (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/mosquito-repelling-socks)