Turmeric as a healing agent in swine has also been studied. One disease
that has been researched is scabies. Swine scabies is a skin disease caused by
Socroptic scabiei var suis (Dwivedi and Sharma, 1985). Dwivedi and Sharma
(1985) made a treatment that was 50 mL of sesame oil with the following plants
added: 8 mL each of lemon and onion extract, 17 mL of garlic extract, 1 g of
camphor, and 8 g each of Gunja seed and turmeric powder. The treatment was
applied topically daily for 5 days at 20 mL/day to the infected pigs. By day 3 of
treatment, the drug was healing the scabies. It was concluded by 30 days post
treatment that the only effect observed was that 2 of the 7 treated animals had a
wrinkling and slight thickening of the skin. The 4 control pigs after 30 days post-
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treatment still had scabies. It was suggested that the turmeric’s role in the drug
was acting as an antimicrobial and possibly causing hair follicle stimulation
(Dwivedi and Sharma, 1985)