Of all the naturopathic modalities, I have to say that I love botanical medicine. It’s just so beautiful to help the body heal with ordinary plants: some that we may even consider weeds. A whole plant contains so many unknown compounds, only some of which that we have isolated and studied. The most well-known compounds within a plant are often the basis for pharmaceuticals. I love to use the whole plant (rather than the isolated drug) because there are generally less side effects than drugs, and there’s often still research to prove efficacy. I wonder if it’s because of all the unknown compounds acting together that we get such wonderful responses from using botanical medicine. Perhaps healing is still more of a mystery than we care to admit.
Botanical medicine can be used in many different preparations. One preparation, for external use, is a herbal salve. This is an oil-based extraction of herbs often used for cuts and scrapes. You can use many different dried herbs for a salve, depending on what kind of salve you’re making. Most leafy herbs will be OK. Herb options for a wound salve include: calendula, yarrow, comfrey, chamomile, chickweed, plantain, and others. In my healing salves, I like using an equal combination of calendula, yarrow, and comfrey.
Calendula
Calendula is very soothing and a gentle healer. A calendula-only salve would be good for cuts & scrapes, diaper rash, and/or eczema relief. It’s a very popular herbal option for skin conditions.
Yarrow
Yarrow is a powerful healing herb that can also help stop bleeding. In addition, yarrow is also anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory. It’s one of my favorite herbs and was historically used by soldiers.
Comfrey
Comfrey is what turns this salve green. It’s one of the strongest healing herbs for cuts and scrapes. For this reason, comfrey should be used with caution in deep and infected bite wounds (comfrey may heal the wound too quickly!). Personally, I love comfrey – but if you have a deep wound, see a doctor and consider not using this plant until later stages of healing.
DIY Green Healing Salve
Ingredients
Oil extract:
- comfrey dried
- calendula dried
- yarrow dried
- 7 parts olive oil
Salve:
- 1 part beeswax
- vitamin E optional
- tea tree essential oil optional
Instructions
- To make the herbal oil extract, fill a large jar with your herbs of choice. (I used roughly equal parts of herbs.) Then, pour olive oil on top until the herbs are completely covered.
- Leave the oil and herbs to sit in a dark, room-temperature place for at least 6 weeks.
- After 6 weeks, strain the herbs out of the oil with a cheesecloth and a fine sieve. Make sure to weigh the oil so you know how much beeswax to use. (I’m sure you could also measure the volume if you don’t have a scale.)
- Melt the beeswax in a pot over very low heat. (You may also want to use a double boiler.)
- Add the herbal oil to the beeswax and continue to heat until the beeswax is thoroughly melted throughout the mixture.
- After everything is melted, take the oil-beeswax mixture off of the heat and squirt in a vitamin E capsule or two. The vitamin E helps to preserve the oil longer, but is totally optional.
You can also add in essential oils here – but careful not to add too much, as this salve will be used on open cuts and essential oils are very strong. - Carefully spoon or pour the melted salve into little containers and wait for it to solidify!
Notes
This year, I made the salves as Christmas gifts. Whenever I make salve, I’m always surprised at how much it makes – so have plenty of little containers ready!
