Slip on a Banana Peel Mom's magic: Or Dad's magic , in this case. Todd Neal of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, convinced his daughter, then a middle school soccer player, to try the wart remedy he'd used successfully: Tape a small piece of banana peel over the plantar wart. "It works so well, it's ridiculous," says the father of a 19-year-old and 17-year-old. After a couple of days, the wart falls off. Expert explanation: It's not surprising that banana peel is an effective treatment. The peel contains a fruit acid: alpha hydroxy acid, says Sandra Marchese Johnson, M.D., co-author of Warts: Diagnosis and Management: An Evidence-Based Approach and a dermatologist in private practice in Fort Smith, Arkansas. "It works by passively exfoliating the skin," the same method used by over-the-counter treatments that contain different acids, she says.
