Herbal salves

[shaman]

Hello Bard!

Nice to hear of your herbal healing. I never tried that mixture, but sure you have there a very good ingredient that heals the skin: comon plantain! Plantain is good against insect bites and other inflamation of the skin. It is  also good to stop bleeding. It is the most common wheed in the garden. It was certainly used by Native Americans to treat wounds. Even today in the "US military manual for first aid" you find plaintain (both the American one and the British one - which is thinner) as good to stop bleeding and to put on wounds. Olive Oil is very good for the skin too and in small quantities on salads.

Basil is also very good against insect bites, it is a soothing herb for the skin, it is able to reduce acidity, whether on the skin on in the tomato sauce or in you stomach.

Of course you have all the herbs for tea that will help you to calm down and sleep better: chamomille, vervain, lemon vervain, lemon balm, passion flower, catnip, valerian,... Once I prepared a tea with what I have in pots at home and I put a lot of them (so much that I am still waiting for my plants to grow back): lemon vervain, lemon balm, catnip, chamomille (and some mint for the taste) and I drank a whole pot of it. Except for going to the bathroom every 2 hours in the night, I had a restfull sleep with many, many dreams. I think it was mainly the catnip that made that effect, since I tried before the same without catnip and did not have the same results.

To remember dreams it is said to make a sleep pillow of rosemary and mugwort (artemisia vulgaris). I tried the rosemary but I did not see any difference. Supposedly Rosemary and mugwort can increase your memory and make you remember your dreams every night. However, I always remember my dream already, so maybe that's why I did not see any difference.

As to the Artemis family, they are not to be taken in large amount. Artemisia can be poisonous (except for taragon). However Artemisia absynthium is used in North Africa to put in tea ("shiba") and it is also used in the South of France to make alcoholic beverage (Absynthe - anisette?). So I guess they could be drink as tea but not in large quantities. You might want to be cautious when you pick up herbs in your garden, not pick up poisonous plants!

Cheers.

Shaman The Dreamer

[Gnosis]

Bard,

Could you provide more details as to preportions of ingredients you are using, or were you just kind of throwing stuff in?

Is there a general way that one goes about cooking the herbs with beeswax for solidification?  I'm guessing double-boiler with beeswax, and stir in the oily liquid.

Also, did you use rasberries, or raspberry leaves, or stems?

Thanks for any information!  I'm moving to a new house soon (from a small apartment), and plan to have an herb garden and do a bit of wildcrafting around my area.

gnosis

[The Bard]

quote:Originally posted by Gnosis

Bard,

Could you provide more details as to preportions of ingredients you are using, or were you just kind of throwing stuff in?

Is there a general way that one goes about cooking the herbs with beeswax for solidification?  I'm guessing double-boiler with beeswax, and stir in the oily liquid.

Also, did you use rasberries, or raspberry leaves, or stems?

Thanks for any information!  I'm moving to a new house soon (from a small apartment), and plan to have an herb garden and do a bit of wildcrafting around my area.

gnosis

I just pretty much threw them together but I used more raspberry than anything else. Both the leaves and berries of the raspberry plants are good for the skin but I used the leaves.

I didn't have a double broiler so I made one by using a tuna can in a small pan of boiling water.

I grow my herbs both inside and outside. For some reason my herbs mostly died in the house this winter. I had a huge beautiful rosemary bush that I watered enough but it just died and I don't know why. My indoor rosebush died this month too. Maybe it just got to cold by the window. That's the trouble in below zero weather.

[shaman]

Rosemary needs a very sunny location, the south facing window should do. I have seen Rosemary growing also outside in freezing conditions and that does not affect the rosemary (if it is already a pretty big bush). What does affect is too much watering, rosemary like it slightly dry and as I wrote very very sunny. So, maybe there was not enough sun and maybe too much water (if the air is humid the water will not evaporate quickly and the roots will rot, then the tip of the leaves become brownish and then all the leaves turn brown and the plant dies - the same is true for the lavender, it needs a lot of sun but not too much water).

[The Bard]

I grow herbs and gather both wild and natural herbs. In 1999 after I survived being butchered by doctors a woman I know gave me a recipe for a salve that would help speed up my bodies healing from the surgeries that I had gone through.

She told me to soak a jar full of Raspberry in olive oil from the dark of the moon until the full moon. Then to strain it and cook it with beeswax to solidify it.

I got carried away. I wasn't satisfied with just Raspberry. I saw jewel weed near my raspberry plants and remembered how it heals poisin ivy and rashes. So I added that. Next thing I knew, I threw in some aloe, Yarrow, Tee tree oil, plantain, and clover.

After my salve was finished my whole family started using it and found that it worked to repel bugs as well as it healed wounds fast. Next thing I knew some elder lady friends of mine started using it to get rid of wrinkles. I couldn't make enough of it. Every year I am asked if I am going to make another batch.

I thought I'd share it here in case anyone else here likes to make salves.

If you have a salve to share please by allmeans add it to this thread.[]