While I am unaware of any evidence for its safety or efficacy, I can tell you that we have this substance in a glass jar in a cupboard in the milk kitchen on my ward and women are still having it daubed on their cracked nipples, with accompanying instructions that vary from "refrain from breastfeeding for 12 hours" (brilliant idea when this is done on day 3 or 4) to "carry on breastfeeding once it has dried" (if you can get the baby to accept the breast with it on, though after it has dried it is like varnish and about as easy to remove, and NO we don't use belt sanders on nipples here).  I was always in the keep on BF camp, because the stuff acted like liquid skin and seemed to allow continued feeding even when there was awful nipple trauma. But there were always a fair number of babies who seemed to really dislike the smell and declined to even try a taste.  Doh!

It's called Peru Balsam here, smells sickly sweet like podophyllin that we used to apply to genital warts back in my gyn days. For all I know women are still getting treated with podophyllin for warts, it's been a long time since I was involved in wart treatment, like 30 years.

But when I first came to Norway, never having seen this stuff or heard of it before, the mothers' organization were the ones recommending Peru balsam and hospitals balked because the word was it was full of coal tar.  It isn't, and we had compounding pharmacists send the recipe to us so we could convince hospitals to start using it, if you can believe it.  I remember having to warn women to let it dry completely before they put their bras on or the cloth would be glued to their skin almost permanently, eek.  

I think I kind of went off it when someone put a little bit in a plastic container, and the stuff dissolved the plastic overnight.  Must have been the alcohol in the tincture, I hope, but who knows?  Or maybe it was when a mother bought herself a supply and the pharmacy put so many scary symbols on the label she almost didn't dare store it indoors in her home, it was flammable, had injurious fumes, and was corrosive - sort of like Drano with a volatile component added.  Yes, let's slather this right on the most sensitive part of your upper body and then let your newborn baby lick it off.  

I am more concerned about why so many mothers on my ward continue to suffer severe skin injury in the first few days post partum, than about what crazy things we apply to the wounds afterwards.  

Interesting to learn that it was used in the US too, and judging by the number of Google hits, it seems to be alive and well in many places.  I didn't bother clicking to read the rest, but found this listed among the hits: "Peru Balsam is an excellent essence for those who feel stressed and unsafe about their sexuality or in sexual situations".  Yes, it would tend to keep away the unwanted attention, I guess.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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