Infusions
This basically just means making a tea, and it is used for herbs of which you use the leaves.
1. Boil some water.
2. Put the dried herb in a container such as a pot or a cup.
3. Poor boiled water over the herbs.
4. Cover the container (this is important to stop essential oils escaping with the steam).
5. Leave for 10 to 15 minutes.
6. Strain and drink.
Decoctions
This is similar to making a tea, but because it is normally for harder things like bark or roots they
need to be simmered to get all the goodness out. While it is probably best to make the decoctions
fresh each time, enough can be made for a whole day at once and drunk throughout the day.
1. Boil some water in a pan and add the herbs.
2. Turn the heat low so that the herb is being gently simmered and put a lid on it.
3. Leave for 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Strain it into cups.
5. Let it cool and then drink.
Poultices
This is a method of applying the herb to the skin. A warm and moist preparation of the herb is put
on the skin and held in place with a bandage. The most simple way of doing this is to chew the herb
a bit and then bandage it on. Alternatively the herbs can be chopped and simmered in a little water
briefly before being allowed to cool and put on the skin.
Tinctures
This is an alcoholic preparation of a herb. It makes a medicine that is quick and simple to take and
that lasts much longer than dried herbs. It can be made with fresh or dried herbs. I will just give the
instructions for making it with fresh herbs here as it is more simple, and with a lot of herbs
(especially Lemon Balm) it can be a better method as it preserves something that would get lost if
the herb is dried first.
1. Collect the herb fresh right before you intend to make the tincture.
2. Chop the herb finely.
3. Fill a clean jar with the chopped herb and press it in really firmly so it is completely full.
4. Fill the jar to the rim with pure alcohol (as in 99.5% grain alcohol. Take care: it is extremely
flammable, and you may need a licence or permit for it).
5. Keep the jar in the shade for two weeks shaking the jar twice each day.
6. Filter the tincture through muslin
Oils
This is a herbal infused oil. I will say how to make two different ones here. The main way to make
it is to gently heat dried herbs in oil:
1. Collect and dry herbs.
2. Break the herb up as much as possible, a course powder is best.
3. Prepare a double boiler or water bath. The simplest way of doing this is with a milk pan that
has a hollow wall: water is put in the hollow wall so that when the pan is put on heat the
water between the walls starts to boil and that boiling water heats the inside pan. A small
saucepan sat inside a bigger saucepan, with water in the bigger saucepan also can work. This
is to stop the oil getting too hot: you dont want to deep-fry the herbs!
4. Put 5 parts oil (e.g sunflower, olive) and 1 part of the herbs in the double boiler and put it on
the heat, keeping a lid over the herbs and oil.
5. Keep it on the heat for at least two hours, though nearer four hours may be better.
6. If the herb was powdered it may need 12 hours to settle before the oil is poured off, or
otherwise filter off the oil.
7. Store the oil in a clean, perfectly dry, labelled glass container in a dark cool place.
NOTE: Make sure no water gets in the oil as it can make the oil go rancid.
Some herb flowers can be used fresh in making a herbal oil by a different method. St. Johns Wort is
a really good example and creates a bright red oil:
1. Fill a jar full of the flowers.
2. Add sunflower oil to the jar so that the flowers are covered.
3. It may be that there are not enough flowers in one day so every day or couple of days add
more flowers to the jar until plenty have been added.
4. Leave the jar in the sun and shake twice a day for 2-3 weeks.
5. Filter out the liquid into a new jar and leave for a day for it to settle.
6. Very carefully pour the clean oil off the top leaving the water and other residue at the bottom
of the jar. It is better to leave some good oil in the jar than to let any of the water get into the
oil that is being kept, as the water may make all the oil go rancid.
7. Store in a labelled bottle in a cool, dark, dry place.
Ointments
This is usually made by adding a small amount of beeswax to a herbal oil to make it thicker. It is a
thick oily paste that can be rubbed onto the skin:
1. Make some herbal oil as per above instructions.
2. Grate some beeswax.
3. Put aside some spare herbal oil for later.
4. Add 30grams of beeswax for every cup of oil. (A few drops of essential oils can also be
added)
5. Heat it very gently while stirring until the wax melts.
6. Dip a metal spoon in the mixture and put the spoon somewhere so that it cools quickly.
7. When the spoon is cool check the result. If the ointment is too soft add more wax to the pot,
if it is too hard add more oil.
8. While the ointment is still warm and runny pour it into the pots you want to use for the
ointment and let it set.
9. Label the pots and store in a cool, dry and dark place.
Creams and Lotions
A cream or lotion is a mixture of herbal oil and water. However, water and oil do not like to mix so
this can be a bit tricky and it needs something else to help it. Both wax and glycerine help water and
oil mix a bit and they are both easily available so I will give that recipe here. Other substances can
be used to make smoother creams, but these are normally in the form of chemical substances and
are a little more difficult to get. Oil and water can quickly go rancid or mouldy together so often
preservatives are used to make it last. Some herbs and especially essential oils can act as mildly
effective preservatives, and storing the cream in a cool place and keeping it clean will also help it
last longer. Even so, dont expect it to last for many months. The following is the most successful
recipe I used but it was still not perfect so you could experiment with the quantities a bit to see if it
can be made better.
1. Melt 1/15th of a cup of wax in 1 cup of herbal oil in one container.
2. Mix ½ tsp of glycerine in 1 and 1/3 cups of water in another container.
3. When the oil and wax cools slightly and just starts to set around the edges vigorously whisk
the water mix in with it so that it becomes creamy.
4. Essential oils can be mixed in too, and some of these can also help the cream last longer.
5. Fill containers with the cream, label it and store it in a cool, dark place.
Syrup
Essentially making a syrup is like making a very concentrated herbal tea and mixing sugar in with it
to stop it going off. The balance of sugar is very important. It has to be enough to stop bacteria
breeding on it, but not too much that it crystallizes out of solution. White sugar is used because it is
possible to be a lot more accurate with the amounts of sugar (brown sugar contains more than just
refined, pure sugar). Other recipes using some honey can also be used but the following recipe is
the one I have experience with:
1. Add cut up dried herbs to freshly boiled water making sure to use as much herbs as possible
to make it strong enough.
2. After 15-30 minute sieve out the herbs and collect the infusion (tea).
3. Put the infusion in a double boiler (see entry for oils) and leave it on the heat with the lid off
until ½ to 2/3 of the water has evaporated off.
4. For every 47ml of liquid add 85 grams of white sugar. The more accurate you are doing this
the longer the syrup will last without preservatives.
5. Filter the syrup through a very clean fine cloth and pour the syrup into sterilized jars.
6. Label and store in a cool, dark place.