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Many cultures have a ritual of cleansing a place with smoke; see smudging (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smudging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smudging). It i
by stared 3y ago
Many cultures have a ritual of cleansing a place with smoke; see smudging (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smudging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smudging).
It is believed to ward off evil spirits. Is some sense, it is true, as the smoke has antiseptic and repellant properties - especially from plants such as woodworm.
- xattt 3y agoIt’s unlikely that smoke has anti-fungal properties, short of treatment with creosote.
- inhumantsar 3y agoPeople have been preserving food with smoke, likely since before agriculture. More recently phenols in wood smoke have been shown to have antimicrobial and antifungal properties. Eg: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37152755/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37152755/ Stands to reason that any culture which smokes food to preserve it might try fumigating with it
- xattt 3y agoTreatment of food by smoke is done before a pathogen has a chance to proliferate. If a fungus sets into wood, and smoke treatment is done after the fact, the smoke won’t be able to penetrate deep enough to completely eradicate something that’s well established.
- jvanderbot 3y agoI bet burning the wood to ash would do it. After all that's the subject of article
- yosito 3y agoFor smudging to have antiseptic properties, I think you'd need a great deal more smoke than you'd get from burning some herbs. The repellent properties are probably a bit easier to achieve. But I think a lot of the effectiveness of smudging comes down to aromatherapy.