Experts debunk TikTok’s ‘onion therapy’ trend

Clip of a woman claiming onions could ‘purify’ your home from viruses and bacteria has received over two million views

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Some TikTokers are claiming to be using onions as air purifiers and as a remedy for the flu.

Recently, a tiktoker with the username @Poshmamma posted a video where she cut onions and placed them around the house.

“What do you do with onions?” Poshmamma asks viewers in a video posted on 23 October. “You cut them up and sit them around your house – they will purify the air and pull the toxins, bacteria, fungus, and viruses out of the air.”

She claimed: “They’re very powerful to keep your house sick-free.

“If other people are getting sick in your house, run to the grocery store and get the red onions to draw in the sickness and draw in the poison.”

The video has amassed over 2.5 million views with a slew of other Tiktokers also supporting so-called “onion therapy.”

However, medical and scientific experts are warning that there is no evidence to support the claim that onions can “clear” the air of viruses.

Dana Ellis Hunnes, a senior clinical dietitian and professor at the University of California Los Angeles told Insider that “there’s no evidence a cut onion around the house can clear the air of toxins, bacteria, fungi, or viruses.”

Speaking of whether onions can slow down flu infection rate, Hunnes said: “Consuming onions might slightly lower the severity of the viral infection, but it probably won’t prevent it.

“There is absolutely no drawback to eating onions while sick, unless you are allergic.”

Epidemiologis Maddy Lewis added that the practice of using onions to cure illnesses or purify the air originated during the Bubonic plague when doctors used herbal medicine to cure diseases.