This post is a response to this video. This video is excellent and addresses some of the nonsense that is taught by survival instructors. Moss in general is not medicinal. Sphagnum moss, however, is medicinal when properly processed: dried and sterilised. Some survival instructors pass on information without undertaking the research required to understand what makes a plant medicinal. I talk about the Dunning-Kruger Effect (DKE) regarding survivalism: Wilderness/herbal and folk medicine is rife with dangerous and stupid information.
Sphagnum moss, sterilised, dried, and properly packed, is a healing plant for wounds.
The video explains how some wilderness instructors suggest sphagnum moss is used straight from the ground. There is a high risk of giving yourself a serious infection, including incurable, fatal illnesses like prion disease (Kuru).
The Science of how sphagnum moss works as a wound dressing is more complex than just having antiseptic properties. The absorbency, coupled with the complex pectins, promotes healing by depriving harmful bacteria of the environment in which they thrive, creating an environment friendly to leucocytes.
The “lack of cytotoxicity on the part of sphagnan, and its ability to inhibit growth only by sequestering ammonia and other primary amines in the ambient medium, must reflect its polymeric and hydrophilic character, which would oppose its traversing the cell wall and cytoplasmic membrane of bacteria. Similar arguments apply to the plasma membrane of mammalian cells, and the intense proliferation of leucocytes (white blood cells) at the interface between wounds and Sphagnum dressings seems to confirm that the latter are not cytotoxic.”
Sphagnum Moss was used as a Wound Dressing in World War 1: Antiseptic Properties Were Identified in the Fight Against Infected Wounds and the Highly Infectious Gas Gangrene.
Sphagnum dressings were dried and sterilised; they weren’t used wet from the field. There has been extensive research into sphagnum moss complex pectin healing properties: “Pectin is a complex polysaccharide and a structural fibre found in plant cell walls, particularly in the primary cell wall and middle lamella. In recent decades, pectin, a biopolymer derived from citrus fruits, apples, and sunflower heads, has drawn remarkable attention as a promising biomaterial due to its biocompatibility, biodegradability, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial properties. Wound healing is a dynamic and complex process essential for restoring the integrity and function of tissues.
“Although they are of a preliminary nature, these simple experiments clearly demonstrate that Sphagnum wound dressings are much more than inert, absorbent materials, and their traditional use for dressing wounds, which in most cases would have been septic (Williams, 1982) starts to make sense. Much remains to be done, however, before the healing properties of Sphagnum moss tissue can be fully understood.”
Sphagnan is essentially a complex pectin. There is extensive literature on the immunostimulatory properties of complex pectins from a wide variety of higher plants, including some that are used specifically for wound healing in traditional African medicine.
IMHO, the video is in many ways correct. Don’t apply damp moss picked off the ground, unprocessed, as a wound dressing in the field. If you need to stop bleeding, use pressure, elevation, and, in extremis, the astringent inner bark from an alder tree. If necessary, ensure you know your trees and what you are doing. (Do not do this based on this article.
Birch Polypore is another item often identified by bushcraft instructors as an antiseptic from which a plaster with these antiseptic properties can be made. While Birch has these antiseptic properties, accessing them is more complex. This too seems to be another case of the Dunning-Kruger Effect in action.
Birch Polypore does indeed have antiseptic properties and makes an adequate plaster for a small cut. But is that plaster antiseptic? Beta-glucans are what make Birch polypore antiseptic, but they are also not water-soluble without processing. While the plaster may have those beta-glucans in contact with the moisture of the wound, they are not bioavailable. Luckily, the processing is human-level, requiring only fire and the boiling of the mushroom in clean water. Medicinally, it is better suited to extraction by decoction and to be used as a wound wash, with the antimicrobial active ingredients extracted into the water. I have always had my misgivings about the convenience of cutting a strip of mushroom and sticking it on a wound.
The Birch polypore, like many medicinal conks, contains beta-glucans, which are largely responsible for overall immune modulation by activating innate immune cells such as macrophages, dendritic cells, granulocytes, and natural killer cells.
The birch polypore (Fomitopsis betulina, formerly Piptoporus betulinus) ranks exceptionally high among fungi, containing up to 52% of its dry weight in beta-glucans alongside substantial alpha-glucan fractions. As a woody bracket fungus, it has tough cell walls that concentrate these polysaccharides far above levels found in standard culinary mushrooms.
Mushrooms with the highest beta-glucan content will support overall immune system health and be most beneficial. Otzi, the Ice Man, was found to have Birch Polypore buttons on him; he was also found to have an infestation of Whipworms: Whipworm infections (caused by Trichuris species). Our Ancient ancestors were super-survivalists; they carried the bare
Beta-glucans are natural glucose polymers found in cell walls that can act as potent immune boosters. Research shows they can help the gut expel intestinal parasitic worms—such as Trichinella—by reshaping the gut microbiome, expanding helpful bacteria like Akkermansia, and triggering type 2 immune responses. This Bronze Age man was likely decocting his Birch buttons to extract the water-soluble beta-glucans. While raw, high-molecular-weight beta-glucans are largely insoluble, hot water extraction breaks down tight cell wall structures to make specific active fractions water-soluble and bioavailable.
General Wellbeing for the survivalist is a habit of collecting foods and medicine of general beneficial use. A daily tea of birch polypore is an immune system booster fighting off influenza and the common cold, as well as an intestinal biome regulator and inhibitor of intestinal parasites. Historically, the hunter was susceptible to meat parasites common in wild game, sometimes because animal parts such as the heart and liver were eaten raw at the kill site, sometimes because fish and meat were infested with worms. This is still common today with wild meat like Rabbit and pheasant, but more advanced skills like field plant medicine are almost lost, and I would suggest that this is partly due to the separation of wilderness skills from nature-based spirituality, which seems to reject the learning of wilderness skills.
In the context of Climate and ecological collapse, identifying a wide variety of non-toxic conks containing beta-glucans should be a priority for survivalists and phytotherapists. Beta-glucans do not kill cancer cells directly; instead, they function as powerful biological response modifiers that train and activate the immune system to recognize and destroy tumors. These naturally occurring polysaccharides—found in the cell walls of fungi, yeast, algae, and cereal grains—bind to specific receptors on immune cells, enhancing the body’s natural defenses and acting as a potent supportive tool (adjuvant) alongside standard treatments like chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Responsible collection and habitat preservation are key to species protection. The banning of the sale of wild medicinal mushrooms will be a key factor in that protection.
Sources:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666893925003172
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378874103001892
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2018.00673/full
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772613424000180
& My own research into field herbal medicine.
Leave a Reply