Vinegar

As tart an unripe apple, vinegar combats bacteria and fungi, takes the itch out of mosquito bites and soothes sunburn. It can also settle an upset stomach, prevent swimmer’s ear, make hair shiner and skin softer. Some people say that vinegar mixed with honey and warm water can ease the pain of leg cramp. Others use vinegar to dry up cold sores. And if someone faints, vinegar is a useful alternative to smelling salts.

What’s it good for?

• acne
• bites and stings
• body odour
• bruises
• dandruff
• dry mouth
• ear problems
• foot odour
• greasy hair
• headache
• head lice
• hiccups
• hives
• indigestion
• nappy rash
• psoriasis
• sunburn
• warts

Put a drop of vinegar on your tongue and you will instantly taste its sourness.  Vinegar’s sharp flavour comes from its high concentration of acetic acid, which is formed when bacteria digest fermented liquids. Acetic acid may be kind to your body, but it is also an industrial-strength product: millions of tonnes of it go into the making of photographic films and artificial fibers such as rayon.

The power of acid

Vinegar is an effective weapon against bacteria. Infectious bugs have been wiped out again and again with vinegar cures. In World War 1, the wounds of soldiers were cleaned with vinegar and even today, if you can stand the string, it is a perfectly adequate disinfectant if you have a scratch or a sore. It’s equally malevolent towards fungal infections. Most will retreat when tackled with a dose of vinegar.

Vinegar is also good for the hair and skin. As an acid, vinegar reacts with chemical bases to produce neutral H₂O (water), along with some salts. When spread on skin or used as a final hair rinse, it can spirit off soap, shampoo or conditioner residue. Rinsing the hair with vinegar may also help to reduce dandruff and calm an itchy scalp.

Here are some of vinegar’s other use:

• Stomach settler If you suffer from indigestion because of a lack of stomach acid, a teaspoon of vinegar after meals may be just what you need. (Of course, if your problem is too much stomach acid, vinegar won’t be any help and will probably make thing worse.)
• Gentle coolant Spread on skin, it evaporates quickly, which provides a friendly chill that can take the burn out of sunburn. Vinegar also helps to counter the inflammation that causes sunburnt skin to itch.
• Bacteria slayer and fungus fighter When bacteria of fungi flourish in the warm, moist hollows of an ear canal, the condition is called swimmer’s ear. Vinegar does double duty – fighting both kinds of invaders – which is why, when mixed in equal parts with surgical spirit and dropped into the ear, it may help to cure the condition (but never drop anything into the ear if there is any chance that the eardrum is ruptured and, if in doubts, always get a doctor’s advice).
• Between the toes Soaking your feet in vinegar is an effective treatment for athlete’s foot.
• Odour eater The high acid content gives it a nice, sharp scent that can override less lovely odours. A vinegar rinse will banish the smell of cigar smoke from clothes, freshen a baby’s nappies when added to the final rinsing water or expurgate unpleasant pongs from armpits or feet.
• Sting stopper Both jellyfish stings and mosquito bites can be relieved with vinegar, which neutralizes pain-causing substances that get in the skin. Vinegar can also relieve the itching of hives: water it down slightly and dab it onto the skin with a cotton wool ball.
• Headache tamer Vinegar is one of the most popular folk remedies for headache. The traditional approach was to soak brown paper with cider vinegar and apply it to the forehead – as happen in the nursery rhyme jack and jill. You can also soak a clean cloth in vinegar and tie it tightly around your head. No one is sure why it works but many people swear by it.
• Throat soother Vinegar is also a trusted folk remedy for sore throats. Some people recommend gargling with a tablespoon of vinegar in a glass of warm water. Others make a homemade cough syrup by combining equal amounts of honey and cider vinegar and stirring or shaking until dissolved

More than sore grapes
If you travel the world in search of varieties of vinegar,  you will find brews made from sugar cane in the Philippines, coconut in Thailand, and in China red, white and black rice wine vinegars that have flavoured stir-fries for more than 5,000 years. Elsewhere you may come across vinegars yielded by honey, potatoes, dates, nuts and barriers. But if you stop nearer home, the most common kinds you’ll find are brown malt vinegar (great with chips), cider vinegar (made from apples), wine and sherry vinegars (made from grapes) or plain distilled white vinegar that’s produced from grain and is as useful as a household cleaner as it is in cooking.

Cider vinegar is often recommended for its health benefits in preference to any others. There are two good reasons. Firstly, fermented apples are rich in pectin, a type of fiber that is very good for digestion. And secondly, apples contain malic acid, which combines with magnesium in the body to help fight aches and pains.

You can make your own vinegar quite easily, but you must use sterilized jars and utensils to avoid bacteria contamination. Started with cider or wine, fermentation is speeded up by addition of a ‘mother’ – in other words, a slosh of existing vinegar that triggers the process. When you become a more experienced vinegar maker, you’ll begin to recognize the moment when the brew is ready.

Once it’s been bottled, capped and stored, homemade vinegar will remain usable for months. But you can use any commercial vinegar for home remedies.