The saying everything old is new again is true for fashion but it also holds true for old-fashioned home remedies that our grandparents and great-grandparents relied upon in the old days to help stay healthy. Did you know that the humble onion, staple of chefs everywhere around the world, has long been used not just to flavor soups and stews, but as a natural healing remedy for a variety of ailments?

According to PostiveMed, onions are a powerhouse of quercetin, a pigment which is also an anti-oxidant. Onions have a strong odor because they are sulfur-rich vegetables, that help fight cancer, boost anti-oxidant and help detox your liver–making the humble onion one tasty and super-powered vegetable!

Ways to Use Onions for Home Remedies

1.) Relieve Burns

Lots of people keep aloe plants in their kitchens to help with accidental cooking burns, but did you know that onions can help reduce the pain of minor burns? Onions offer natural pain relief so the next time you scorch your thumb on the roof of your oven, try rubbing the burn with half of a cut onion to soothe it. And you can skip the anti-bacterial ointment, too; that juicy onion also works as an antiseptic for your wound. And because onions also help to lessen the chance of scarring, you might want to stock up on onions the next time they are on sale so you can rub onion juice on the burnt spot for several days to a few weeks as the folks at FawesomeTV have discovered.

2.) Soothe Bug Bites

Summertime means outdoor time which almost sometimes leads to bug bites from mosquitos, chiggers, and flies. When hanging at your neighbor’s cookout leaves you with legs full of itchy bites, slice up some onions and rub the juice over those annoying welts. The naturally occurring sulfur onion works as an anti-itch remedy according to The Best Years in Life.

3.) Eliminate Ear Aches

Ever watch an old movie and see a kid lying in bed with his head and ears bound with strips of cloth? Chances are he was supposed to be sick with an earache and had on onion poultice wrapped against his ear. According to Tech Insider, you can still use this old time home remedy which has generations of happy testimonials even if it lacks official scientific research. Just bake an onion at 450 degrees for 15 minutes and juice it after it has cooled. Drop a few drops of the cooled juice in the sore ear and wait for the pain relief to begin.

4.) Get Rid of Stuffy Noses

If you’ve ever cut up a big, ripe onion, you might have already experienced the decongesting power of this humble vegetable as tears ran down your face. While no one wants to cry their way through a cold, PostiveMed suggests that cutting up an onion into a deep bowl then taking a deep inhalation of the resulting vapors may help open your nasal passages at the same time as your tear ducts.

5.) Recover Faster From a Cold

Feel a cold coming on? To get rid of a cold fast, simply chop an onion in half and set it on a plate next to your bed where you will be sleeping. People swear by this 100-year-old remedy saying the onion vapors will help break up the mucus buildup to help reduce your cold and flu symptoms.

Others say the onion will actually absorb all the “bad” bacteria in the air and will turn black indicating this. However, there is no scientific evidence to back up this claim but there is no harm in trying!

It’s amazing to realize how much the humble onion can help us stay healthy and offer so many different natural remedies!

Do you have a story about using onions for natural healing? Or a story from your grandparents or great-grandparents about using onions to stay healthy? Please share it in a comment section below.

Please SHARE these brilliant uses for onions with your Facebook friends!

Which main use for onions will you try first?

Tell us in the comments section below or take our uses for onions quiz below.