Posts Tagged ‘chickweed’

As promised I will talk today about how we make a vital part of our healing salve – Universal Herbal Ointment at the Moon Haven cottage in Cowaramup,  Margaret River

For the Universal Herbal Ointment we use a potent combination of infused herb oil as one of the very vital components.  By infusing carrier oils with various herbs we are able to extract the fat soluble components of the herbs into the carrier oils…hence it becomes an ínfusion’. You can do the same with water, alcohol and glycerine…to name a few more solvents.

For our Universale Herbal Ointment herb infusion we take dried herbs such as Calendula, Plantain, Shepherds Purse, Yarrow, Chickweed, Gotu Kola and several others  and place them in a sterilised glass jar.  We then take our carrier oil of choice – often this is olive or sunflower oil – fill to the brim and cover.

What follows next is magical… we place the full herb jar in the garden in a lovely sunny place.  Over the days we watch the carrier oil gradually change colour as all the fat soluble components from the herbs are infused into the oils.  Each day we give the jars a stir and let the herbs settle again.

After two weeks or so we decant and filter  the now vibrant and enriched oil into clean jars -ready to make into a Moon Haven salve or lotion.

These infused oils are precious and potent and we treasure them for what they bring to our formulations.  Our Universal Herbal Ointment, Achy Breaky Rub and all our other formulations would not be as effective without the herbal oils.

You can just see where Sophie's psoriasis was.... just

Sophie recently came into Moon Haven raving about our herbal salves and especially our Universal Herbal Ointment and  Chickweed & Plantain Salve.

You see, Sophie had one of the worst cases of psoriasis in just one area that I have seen.

The  one large lesion on her left leg took up half of her shin, was thick, weeping, inflamed and extremely uncomfortable as well as unsightly.

Sophie never wore skirts or bared her legs.  It was something she lived with for many, many years.

Then along came a visit to Moon Haven and with one look we decided that she needed a combination of two of our salves.  The Universal Herbal Ointment to treat the infection – applied sparingly and only for the very worst areas and a general application of our Chickweed & Plantain Salve used twice daily.

Well two months later this is the result!  You can just see where the lesion was…just…in the photo there is a small patch of discolouration where the psoriasis was located.  I would expect this to fade over time to the point where it will not be noticeable. (I wish I had take a ‘before’ photo so you could see the dramatic improvement)

Needless to say Sophie is delighted and shorts and skirts are back in her wardrobe.

Moon Haven's Chickweed & Plantain Salve is excellent to help soothe Excema / Eczema

We had a young boy – about 6 or 7  come into Moon Haven today with a very irritated case of excema.  ( Excema can also be spelt eczema  which totally confuses me and I am sure many others as well!)

Anyway this young chap was scratching away to the point where he was drawing blood.  Localised to only the inner elbows and back of the knees he was obviously in a lot of discomfort.

Anyway we applied a very small amount of Moon Haven’s Chickweed & Plantain Salve to one arm – just to see if it made any difference and so we could compare it to the other.

Well…within 5 minutes the redness was subsiding to a mild pink and the child was much more comfortable and Mum and Dad were back to apply the salve to the other arm.

Both parents expressed relief that they have found something that they can use to soothe their son’s skin and hopefully allow him to sleep without scratching.  They told me that they had tried so many different treatments that they had almost given up hope…and the Chickweed & Plantain was the first to offer such immediate relief!

They are not alone – we have many, many advocates of this salve for helping to deal not only with excema but psoriasis and dermatitis.

It never ceases to amaze me how such a simple herbal salve can bring such profound relief.