Black salve is a topical escharotic used for the treatment of skin cancer. Although promoted as a safe and effective alternative to conventional management by its proponents, limited clinical research has been undertaken to assess its efficacy and potential toxicities. Patients are increasingly utilizing the Internet as a source of health information. As a minimally regulated space, the quality and accuracy of this information vary considerably. This review explores four health claims made by black salve vendors, investigating its natural therapy credentials, tumour specificity, and equivalence to orthodox medicine in relation to skin cancer cure rates and cosmesis. Based upon an analysis of in vitro constituent cytotoxicity, in vivo post black salve histology, and experience with Mohs paste, black salve is likely to possess normal tissue toxicity with some cancer cell lines being relatively resistant to its effects. This may explain the incongruous case study reports of excessive scarring, deformity, and treatment failure.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 28. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 November 2025.
All research outputs
#1,733,440
of 33,979,905 outputs
Outputs from Evidence-based Complementary & Alternative Medicine (eCAM)
#504
of 9,625 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#27,943
of 467,345 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Evidence-based Complementary & Alternative Medicine (eCAM)
#12
of 136 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 33,979,905 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 94th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 9,625 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.4. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 467,345 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 136 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its contemporaries.
