Insect Bites and Stings: Tips and Remedies

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Its an enzymatic product ...

Meat tenderizer refers to a powdered naturally derived enzyme powder. The enzyme most commonly used is papain which comes from papayas. Meat is sprinkled with the powder and the enzymes help to break down the meat fibers. The same result can be obtained by marinating meat in papaya or pineapple juice.

Apparently, Adolph's Meat Tenderizer (an old standby, check the spice section in your grocery store) uses pineapple extracts. Don't know if fresh pineapple or pineapple juice would be conc'd enough to work. If you wear soft contacts, the enzymatic cleaning tablets will probably contain papain, pancreatin, subtilisin, subtilisin A, trypsin, or chymotrypsin -- all proteolytic (i.e. protein- and peptide-digesting) enzymes, which should break down the bee venom. So maybe put one of those fizzy tablets on your next bee sting, though I don't know if all would be equally effective.