The following is an excerpt from an email I sent to a friend of mine but that I thought I would post here on the blog.
Poison oak! Fortunately when I fell down the hill I was nowhere near it. I was on the hill in front of the big windows. I was working on brush clearance. But if you ever have trouble with Poison oak again, I have a suggestion.
Microbiology is a terrible thing to waste :-) Our immune system is what mediates the response to poison oak. Our antibodies bind to the compound and then accidentally tell our body to over respond => hypersensitivity reaction — itch itch itch :-)
The original scientific analysis of antibodies involved papain. Papain is a protease enzyme that cleaves antibodies into three separate pieces. Once they are cleaved they are no longer able to cause the hypersensitivity reaction to poison oak.
Papain is found in the Papaya fruit also the key ingredient in meat tenderizer. Meat tenderizer works on insect stings for a different reason but _ for me_ it also works on poison oak. And the crystals feel so good as a scratching agent. Put a tsp of meat tenderizer on a sponge and rub/scratch away. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :-) Rub lightly, don’t draw blood! And if you grind up an aspirin pill — it works exceedingly well topically :-) But don’t tell the FDA that I said so because apparently they’re against anything natural that actually works and won’t allow aspirin to be put in poison oak medications– go figure.