Nature Notes: Human saliva stimulates healing

• By MARLENE A. CONDON
• December 16, 2025

A wonderfully valid saying of Albert Einstein is that we should, “Look deep into Nature and you will understand everything.”

I couldn’t agree more.

When I wrote my book, “The Nature-friendly Garden,” in 2005, I mentioned that no matter how many precautions you took, you would still get scratches while gardening. I dutifully pointed out that it was essential to keep tetanus shots up to date and to clean your wounds with soap and water. However, I did not mention applying antibiotic ointment to them, as most folks would suggest.

Indeed, when my editor read this section, he called to ask why I hadn’t suggested using the ointments, which are so widely recommended for cuts. I told him that when washing with soap and water was not possible, or my cut was not severe enough to make me take the time to get into the house to clean it, I had always applied my saliva to the broken and bleeding skin instead. I had never gotten an infection in all my decades of gardening, so I had never personally found antibiotics necessary.

I explained that during my life, I had observed numerous kinds of mammals. I’d noticed that when an animal had a wound, it licked it —sometimes a lot — suggesting to me that saliva must have antibiotic properties. Just as form follows function in architecture and animal anatomy, I realized that in life, behavior follows necessity.

Wild animals, like humans, get hurt, but unlike humans, who have salves they can apply, wild animals need a way to help their injuries heal without infection. It was obvious to me that, because wild animals do not waste energy (every behavior can and must be explained in terms of benefit to the organism), they would only lick their wounds if it were beneficial. I saw no reason why that rule of thumb would not also apply to me when I suffered a superficial cut.

My editor found this fascinating. It made sense to him, and he pushed very hard for me to include this information in the book. However, I demurred. Knowing how litigious our society had become, the “lawyer in me” thought better of making any recommendations regarding human health without an official study to back me up, even though the scientist in me knew I must be right.

Indeed, just two years after my book was published in 2006, researchers in the Netherlands confirmed what I’d told my editor, and went even farther than I did.

“A report by scientists from the Netherlands identifies a compound in human saliva that greatly speeds wound healing. This research may offer hope to people suffering from chronic wounds related to diabetes and other disorders, as well as traumatic injuries and burns. In addition, because the compounds can be mass produced, they have the potential to become as common as antibiotic creams and rubbing alcohol,” according to the article, Licking Your Wounds: Scientists Isolate Compound In Human Saliva That Speeds Wound Healing.