Share your homemade remedies: creams, salves, tinctures, poultices etc.

[survive]

I made a batch of a black drawing salve:

Black Drawing Salve

Links where I got info on making Black Salve

http://herbs.lovetoknow.com/Black_Drawing_Salve

http://www.quantumbalancing.com/blacksalve.htm

http://www.makelotion.com/blacksalverecipe.htm

http://herbs.lovetoknow.com/Recipe_for_Black_Drawing_Salve

My Trial Black Salve Recipe
Ingredients:

45g Pine Sap (good old remedy for drawing)
45g Charcoal
45g Beeswax
90g Olive Oil
1 tsp Tea Tree Oil
1 Tbsp Vit-E Oil

Directions:
Heat on low heat:
Olive oil, beeswax and pine sap

Grind charcoal fine
Add to above mixture

Allow to cool a bit
Add tea tree oil and vit-E oil

Stir till all mixed
Pour/scoop into small containers

Let cool and store.

Will be a salve consistency. When grinding the granulated charcoal (Activated charcoal can be found in pet stores, aquarium section), salve has a bit of a gritty consistency. May buy charcoal capsules from health food store, but will be more expensive. Opening the capsules will be more work, but does have a finer grind, thus giving the final product a smoother consistency. I'm going to try to put the ground charcoal through a fine sieve next time....we'll see!

Directions for use:

Apply liberally to infected area
Cover with gauze and tape edges
Replace bandage daily as needed

Note:

Salve is very black and can make a mess

[survive]

To make your own Echinacea...

To Make Homemade Echinacea Tincture

Pick the echinacea plant when the flowers are still young. The yellow pollen ring will be at the outside ring of the middle of the flower. As the plant matures the middle of the flower builds up into a cone shape (Hence the name "cone flower") Once it has formed into this shape it has gone beyond its prime, for harvesting, as the center has turned into seed and no longer has as much of the valuable oils in it.

So, pick a young flower: flower, stock and roots
chop into small pieces
Put into jar
Cover with vodka
let sit in dark place for 2 weeks. Shake jar occasionally - every few days
Strain the vodka (now echinacea tincture) from the herb

To strain I use a sieve to get the big stuff out
Press the herb with a potato ricer, to get all of the vodka out.
Then pour through coffee filter (the permanent ones work great for this too)

Bottle it and use when you feel you are getting sick (I save all of my old dropper bottles. You can also buy droppers from the pharmacy)

Dose, if you feel you are getting sick, you can take 12-40 drops (1/4 to 1/2 tsp) every 2 hours

Try not to do this for more than 2 weeks at a time.
Give your body a weeks break and restart if you need to.

[survive]

Ear Oil (For infections and earaches)
1 part mullein oil
1 part garlic oil
1 part calendula oil
1 part St. John's wort oil

You can also add 1-2 % oregano oil - helps, but is not required

To use:
Before bed, fill you ear canal with the oil and put cotton in ear, to keep oil from running out. Repeat nightly as needed.

[survive]

Cold and Flu Season Helpers

Cold and Flu Season Helpers

For Colds

[goatlady]

Be EXTREMELY careful using Neti's - Unless you are absolutely sure the water you are using is basically sterile you can be introducing bacteria and even parasites into your sinuses and they can then "migrate" through the membranes into the brain! Several people have had a major problem using contaminated water unknowingly. Best to boil the water first.

[donweld]

A cpl years back I pulled a muscle in my neck and went through the whole gambit of drugs x-rays and ct scans non of it worked so I pulled out my trusty herb book. I found that arnica montana was used for deep bruising so i tried it. Got some dried flowers steeped them in hot water soaked a wash cloth with it and put it on my neck for 30 min. I was shocked when I took it off the pain and swelling was totaly gone, after weeks of suffering and wearing a neck brace this was all it took? Too bad doctors dont learn this stuff in school.

[monkeybird]

FYI Vicks Vapo Rub - yes the old fashion your mother used to rub on your chest when you had a cold, works great on toe nail fungus. Just roughen up the nail surface with a file, apply ointment twice daily!! It works.

I got a fungus on my big toenail from having pedicures, tried this method and it works.

[Wildlander]

I am an ethnobotanist. Vics vapor rub is mostly oil company product that will not be available in severe survival situations. Nor will olive oil, vit E oil, vodka, etc.

I am going to challenge the posters here to find alternatives strictly from the wild.

Example, our sagebrush in the western US is composed of many woody and herbaceous (non-woody) species. The active component in Vics Vapor rub is camphor that acts against the fungus responsible for foot rot (aka, atheletes foot), jock itch and toenail infections. The smell of sagebrush includes camphor which it will provide. Similarly, most of the Arnica's including A cordifolia are available in the wild but you have to be very careful in preparation and use as they can do burn damage to the skin. Start with moderation and slowly increase the potency.

My challenge to you is to find wax and oils to replace those commercial products in the recipes above. Here is a hint, 'composites' will provide oils. Share with us the ones available as native plants in your area. Similarly, look for evergreen green leavfed species that tend to be wax coated. How can you extract the wax for use in salves?

The Wildlander

[Wildlander]

In the northwest us, oregon grape, wax myrtle and others may be a source of wax. What about your region.

I am an ethnobotanist. Vics vapor rub is mostly oil company product that will not be available in severe survival situations. Nor will olive oil, vit E oil, vodka, etc.

I am going to challenge the posters here to find alternatives strictly from the wild.

Example, our sagebrush in the western US is composed of many woody and herbaceous (non-woody) species. The active component in Vics Vapor rub is camphor that acts against the fungus responsible for foot rot (aka, atheletes foot), jock itch and toenail infections. The smell of sagebrush includes camphor which it will provide. Similarly, most of the Arnica's including A cordifolia are available in the wild but you have to be very careful in preparation and use as they can do burn damage to the skin. Start with moderation and slowly increase the potency.

My challenge to you is to find wax and oils to replace those commercial products in the recipes above. Here is a hint, 'composites' will provide oils. Share with us the ones available as native plants in your area. Similarly, look for evergreen green leavfed species that tend to be wax coated. How can you extract the wax for use in salves?

The Wildlander

[EX121]

How about manzinita (sp?) pippipsewa, kinikick (bearberry?) I never tried. A very interesting question.

[goatlady]

Not exactly from the "wild", but lard/tallow even bear and or goose fat will substitute quite nicely, albeit short term, for any fat/oil needed for salves and ointments. Much easier to extract than trying to simmer, skim, and consolidate plant waxes and oils. Don't really need vodka as there is easy availability of 'shine in this area even now days; just as good or better than Everclear. Local apiary can and will furnish prime bee's wax, again for salves and ointments. Just have to think outside the standard "box."

[WiseOwl]

Crush up some willow bark into a powder mix in some water and drink it and it kinda gets rid of a headache. ( I never know how much to use with fear of overdosing on tree bark)

Also, I boil some water throw in a green tea pack, add some honey and a pinch of cinnamon and it keeps me from getting sick during sick seasons...*knocking on wood*

[goatlady]

WiseOwl, it's the INNER bark of the willow that contains the aspirin ingredient that hits headaches, not the outer bark so much, especially from the smaller, new growth twigs of the tree. It's hard to overdose on that as in order to be effective at all the tea will be/should be really bitter, bitter, almost hard to swallow. LOTS of honey needed for my taste buds.

[WiseOwl]

Thanks for clearing that up for me Goatlady. Didn't know it was on the new growth twigs, could you just chew on the twigs?
We tried this out in the woods a couple of times and were unsure so we had the inner and the outer....and yes it was biiiiiiittttter! I honestly thought about pouring some sugar in it. Also "heard" dogwood bark and yes....it was tried to.
But, at a younger age when we were trying this I was a lil bit of a knucklehead. Now, I carry some advil.......;)

[Klayton]

You are referring to salicyclic acid (aspirin). I learned this in Boy Scouts, two almond hershey bars contain enough "aspirin" to clear up a small headache. Not ever confirmed, just something I was taught in Boy Scouts.

Nuts rich in polyunsaturated fats and Vitamin E, also contain salicyclic acid. Nuts with the highest amounts include almonds, peanuts, pine nuts and macadamia nuts. Moderate sources include the coconut and Brazil nuts.

I am sure they taste MUCH better than willow bark. =)