Scientists talked about the importance of moss for frontline medicine

From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Soviet medicine faced the problem of a shortage of dressings. Specialists began searching for affordable and cheap alternatives to gyroscopic cotton wool and lignin, which were then mainly used for wound treatment. By its qualities, peat moss with the Latin name sphagnum is well suited for this. It is a small plant that grows on the surface of swamps. It is found in huge quantities in the former Soviet Union and especially often in Eastern Siberia. Irkutsk State University became one of the main centers of its collection for the needs of the front. Zhdanova.

On the front line of life: how a scientist-surgeon saves wounded soldiers on the front line

Izvestia correspondent visited a military field medical station located four kilometers from the front line

"The possibility of replacing cotton wool and lignin with sphagnum is based on its enormous moisture absorption capacity. Laboratory tests of its hygroscopic and capillary moisture capacity have shown that in terms of these physical properties it far surpasses all known dressings, except for granulosa (starch grains). And the disadvantages that it does have can be minimized through proper processing," said Sergey Trofimenko, head of the Soldiers of the Fatherland Department at the Irkutsk History Museum.

According to the scientific article "History and prospects of the use of sphagnum mosses in medicine", published in the journal "Doctor" in 2016, the use of peat moss for wound treatment began long before the outbreak of World War II. For the first time in Russia, it was used as a dressing in the 19th century.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

Moss — aid: how a swamp plant saved lives in the Great Patriotic War