In summer 2009 I posted about my first experiments with common plantain in Grandma Called it “Medicine Leaf” and Real Healing Potions. Plantain is a common lawn and garden weed. It has many medicinal properties, which are listed in the previous post, along with instructions for making an oil infusion. The leaves themselves can be applied directly to the skin, but for ease of use and long term storage, I infuse them in olive oil. (If you don’t have fresh herbs available, you may infuse a high quality dry herb like those from Mountain Rose Herbs or other medicinal herb suppliers. Fresh is best, but sometimes you need to get creative.)
Oils are great for covering large areas (like when you get covered in mosquito bites or sunburned), but sometimes an ointment or salve is more convenient (for instance, to treat a single bite, or apply to hemorrhoids, or to pack in your purse – no spills!). Once you have an herbal infused oil, making an ointment is quite simple. The following instructions are based on Herbal Healing Wise by Susun Weed.
First, drain the plant material out of your oil. I use my Norpro Jelly Strainer.
For each one ounce/30 ml of infused oil, measure out one tablespoon/15 ml of grated or granular beeswax. Place the infused oil in a small pot, add the beeswax. Frontier has some very ease to use beeswax pellets. They pack together more tightly than grated wax, so you should use a scant tablespoon (my first batch was on the thick side). Here’s a photo of the pellets. Note: once my pellets are gone, I think I’ll be getting some wafers from Mountain Rose Herbs, as they are less refined.
Place the pan on very low heat. Susun suggests a candle flame, but that didn’t seem very practical. I set the burner on my gas stove to its lowest setting.
Stir constantly until the beeswax is totally melted. This rarely takes more than a minute or two. I blinked and the pellets were gone. Pour the liquid into your ointment jar and allow it to cool and solidify. I ordered both one ounce and two once containers from Frontier. The one once containers were plastic with flip tops, the 2 ounce were glass with metal caps. Below is all the finished salve and the extra bottles of oil I kept as oil. I reuse old extract jars, but I also purchased some glass jars from Frontier. I sold some of these at the farmers market last year and also gave some as gifts. It was a terribly wet year and the mosquitoes were out in full force, so the salve was pretty popular.
If you find the consistency of your salve to be too hard, remelt it and add more infused oil. If it is too soft, remelt and add more beeswax. I made up labels with a picture of my grandmother on them, and named it Grandma Catherine’s Medicine Leaf Healing Salve. I hope she’d approve.
16 Responses to “How to Make a Salve with Infused Oils”
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I have had funny results with beeswax pellets. I melted it with coconut oil and some other oil and then whipped it to make a balm. The wax was grainy because it cooled off again after it melted. Kind of weird.
That's interesting. I've only using them with olive oil, and they melted very smoothly. It was so much easier than using shaved beeswax. Maybe you got an off batch? I can't imagine how beeswax could be "off", but…hmmm…
[...] rash on the inside of my knees and on my ankles. I tried all sorts of topical treatments – plantain salve, kombucha, herbal antibiotic ointment, coconut oil – nothing [...]
I don’t know how to yet. But I hope to learn.
[...] containers of Grandma Catherine’s Medicine Leaf Healing Salve (one regular and one travel [...]
[...] plantain, using plantain fresh, and infusing plantain in oil. I give instructions on “How to Make a Salve With Infused Oils“. I like to keep the salve on hand for smaller spots like bug bites, and use the oil for [...]
[...] If you’d like to see how to make a salve out of the infused oils, please check out this post. This post has been added to the Homestead Barn Hop #16 and Healthy 2 Day [...]
[...] infused it into oil. It works AMAZINGLY well on mosquitoes bites and wasp stings. I have also made a salve from the infused oil, which is great for spot treatments and hemorrhoids. I have dried some plantain as well, but for [...]
What about other types of plantain? I don’t have broad leaf growing in my yard but I think I have Buckhorn Plantain. It’s hard to tell since my husband insists on mowing everything and I never see the stalk or flowering part of the plant. If it is buckhorn, can it be used the same way?
“There are over 200 species in the plantain family, and they are found worldwide. Many have herbal uses. Plantago major is the most common one in North America, but Plantago lanceolata can also be found. Both have the same medicinal uses, and are very similar in appearance. Plantago major has wide rounded leaves, with a flowering spike covered with small nubbly seeds; Plantago lanceolata has longer, slender leaves, and a mostly bare flowering stem, with a conelike cluster of flowers on the top. ”
http://www.prairielandherbs.com/plantain.htm
[...] oils make a great base for homemade salves, such as plantain salve, which I always keep on hand for bug bites, bee stings and other minor skin irritations. Flavored [...]
When I saw the title I thought it was plantain – part of the banana family, but I see in the link that is an entirely different plant. I live in tropical Australia so not sure that the plant that you are referring to is available here.
It does grow in Australia – http://nuturf.com.au/files/2011/10/Tech-Bulletin-Issue-13.pdf
My kids will chew a leaf and apply to a sting or burn. It really helps. I’d love to try making the salve. It sounds easy. Thanks.
What kind of strainer are you using in the picture?
Stephanie – It’s a Norpro Jelly Strainer. I added a direct link in the post. You can also find them in some hardware stores or where canning supplies are sold.