I used cabbage leaves this past week to relieve the swelling on my thigh
where I smacked it into the wooden arm of the couch.  OUCH!  I didn't think
of it til day 3 after the impact, by which time the bruise was the size of
my palm and purple and lumpy.  But the cabbage leaves not only reduced the
swelling dramatically, but also seemed to speed up the processing of the
blood in the bruise.  Overnight it went from bright purple to faded
green/yellow, which usually takes more like a week.  What's in those cabbage
leaves???

Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Nutrition
Texas A&M University