Black salve" contains a combination of the escharotic agents zinc chloride and Sanguinaria canadensis (bloodroot), both of which induce the formation of an eschar via localized tissue necrosis. Other ingredients of the salve are touted as having anticarcinogenic, antioxidant, and keratolytic properties. Zinc chloride, the most abundant caustic substance in the salve, has been used in the debride-ment of chronic leg ulcers and in treating osteolytic bone lesions. The corrosive nature of "black salve" is supposed to be effective in ridding the skin of cancer. Unfortunately, the effect is not limited to the neoplasm, and damage to the surrounding unaffected tissue also occurs.
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