# Herbal Oils



## wdcutrsdaughter (Dec 9, 2012)

Anyone make herbal oils from fresh plants?

Does your oil become cloudy?


----------



## sunshinemama91 (May 5, 2020)

I made Dandelion oil, but idk if I made it right so I have yet to use it  no idea if its cloudy or not, it's in a dark bottle. I've been wanting to make oils, tinctures, and salves! I'm just a lazy ham.


----------



## wdcutrsdaughter (Dec 9, 2012)

sunshinemama91 said:


> I made Dandelion oil, but idk if I made it right so I have yet to use it  no idea if its cloudy or not, it's in a dark bottle. I've been wanting to make oils, tinctures, and salves! I'm just a lazy ham.



Not that you were asking for advice, but you may want to strain it out into something clear to make sure you aren't using moldy oil. What part of the dandelion did you use? 
I made a vinegar with the flowers, haven't strained or tried it yet.

I find tinctures to be the easiest to make. Last year my oils molded.


----------



## GTX63 (Dec 13, 2016)

My wife makes an astringent from plantain, which is a driveway weed. She crushes it and soaks it 4-7 days in a mason jar of vinegar. It is somewhat dark but it doesn't cloud over time, and we have used single bottles of it for up to a year.


----------



## sunshinemama91 (May 5, 2020)

wdcutrsdaughter said:


> Not that you were asking for advice, but you may want to strain it out into something clear to make sure you aren't using moldy oil. What part of the dandelion did you use?
> I made a vinegar with the flowers, haven't strained or tried it yet.
> 
> I find tinctures to be the easiest to make. Last year my oils molded.


I made it with whole plant, roots, leaves and flowers! And yes I will do that! It looked clear when I was straining it into the bottle. It's like 3 months old now though.


----------



## sunshinemama91 (May 5, 2020)

GTX63 said:


> My wife makes an astringent from plantain, which is a driveway weed. She crushes it and soaks it 4-7 days in a mason jar of vinegar. It is somewhat dark but it doesn't cloud over time, and we have used single bottles of it for up to a year.


That stuff grows in our garden walk ways like. Nuts. I cant get rid of the stuff


----------



## GTX63 (Dec 13, 2016)

Bee sting? Grab a handful of the leaves and throw them into your mouth. Spit out the rocks and spiders and chew it until it is soggy.
Then put it on and around the sting. Bam!
We have old tubes of Benedryl, calamine, etc sitting below the sinks, unused. Plantain is the bomb.
But as far as going bad, a small mason jar usually doesn't last much more than a year and it is empty.
We'll make next years batch up this fall and keep it in the pantry.


----------



## wdcutrsdaughter (Dec 9, 2012)

GTX63 said:


> Bee sting? Grab a handful of the leaves and throw them into your mouth. Spit out the rocks and spiders and chew it until it is soggy.
> Then put it on and around the sting. Bam!
> We have old tubes of Benedryl, calamine, etc sitting below the sinks, unused. Plantain is the bomb.
> But as far as going bad, a small mason jar usually doesn't last much more than a year and it is empty.
> We'll make next years batch up this fall and keep it in the pantry.


 I love plantain too - do you know yarrow? will stop bleeding on the spot. comfrey is another miracle leaf.

I'm going to make the astringent you describe... you use it in place of witch hazel or ?


----------



## sunshinemama91 (May 5, 2020)

wdcutrsdaughter said:


> I love plantain too - do you know yarrow? will stop bleeding on the spot. comfrey is another miracle leaf.
> 
> I'm going to make the astringent you describe... you use it in place of witch hazel or ?


Tell me more, I have all 3 growing in my garden.


----------



## wdcutrsdaughter (Dec 9, 2012)

sunshinemama91 said:


> Tell me more, I have all 3 growing in my garden.


Gosh, I don't have the time to type it all out, there is so much information.

Go to youtube
search 
susun weed (also has a website)
or
rosemary gladstarr (also has a website, is giving discounts on classes)
or
she is of the woods
or
avena botanicals, deb soule (also has a website)
or 
herbal jedi

enjoy!


----------



## GTX63 (Dec 13, 2016)

wdcutrsdaughter said:


> I love plantain too - do you know yarrow? will stop bleeding on the spot. comfrey is another miracle leaf.
> 
> I'm going to make the astringent you describe... you use it in place of witch hazel or ?


Yep, yarrow is good. My wife is a witchdoctor with a green thumb.


----------



## sunshinemama91 (May 5, 2020)

wdcutrsdaughter said:


> Gosh, I don't have the time to type it all out, there is so much information.
> 
> Go to youtube
> search
> ...


She is of the woods is someone I know personally. Her name is April, has like 4 foot long dreadlocks and lives in my town. HEAVILY into witchcraft and occultics. Her and I dont get along very well since I left that neck of the woods  (for puns sake). She is a great herbalist for the most part though!


----------



## sunshinemama91 (May 5, 2020)

Well, not IN my town, but very close quarters


----------



## emelyblunts (Aug 28, 2020)

I use CBD herbal oil. I hurt my back at work over a year ago and nothing helped the pain u til I tried CBD oil. I found this review berkshirecbd.com/vermonts-top-cbd-hemp-strains/


----------



## wdcutrsdaughter (Dec 9, 2012)

emelyblunts said:


> I use CBD herbal oil. I hurt my back at work over a year ago and nothing helped the pain u til I tried CBD oil.


 congratulations
nothing to do with this post though. 
using an oil and making an oil are two different things.


----------



## random (Jul 23, 2020)

The video says "eczema" and "other skin irritants" - just wondering if that includes a general non-specific histamine reaction? Have you used it for something like that successfully too?

Probably something I'm going to have to try.


----------



## just_sawing (Jan 15, 2006)

We break down our Hemp with a totally cold process. We have found that heating any of the Herbal oils Decarbs them into different Chemical makeups. This is hard and involved but our success is great. 
Yarrow is one of our top plants to work with in the future. But a note that if you look at the companies that sell Yarrow extract you will see that they use a solvent extraction meaning high heat. That is a down fall that sometimes is the only way but isn't preferred.


----------



## CC Pereira (9 mo ago)

I know of three ways to extract oil from plants:

1. Cold pressing - literally pressing oil out of the plant, at room temperature ... I don't do it this way, but it may be an effective method for plants that contain a lot of base oil, such as nuts and seeds.
2. Solvent extraction - the use of a solvent, such as water, oil, or alcohol, at room temperature, to extract oil from plants ... I prefer this method, using warm water ... I'll explain below. Water is not a solvent for extracting oil, but it does get oils to separate from the water and water soluble stuff.
3. Distillation - the use of steam to extract oil from plants ... effective, but usually involves high heat, which can destroy many properties. I think it could be done using steam that has cooled to room temperature, but has not yet condensed into liquid.

So the way I do it is as follows (solvent extraction, using warm water):

1. Combine equal parts raw plant matter and warm (90-100F) water into a food grade container, such as a mason jar. The jar should be filled to the top, leaving no air space ,,, so half of the container should contain raw plant matter, and the other half should contain warm water.
2. Close container with lid, and set aside for about 1 hour. I've tried this for 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, and 12 hours, and got the same results every time, so have stuck to 1 hour, to reduce time, oxidation, and potential for growing things I don't want.
3. Strain out solids. You now have a warm water infusion, with a strength of 25%.
4. Set aside in refrigerator overnight. Oils will rise to the top of the water. Even if the oil is clear, it is usually pretty easy to see the difference between the oil and the water.
5. Remove the oil from the water. This can be done by skimming or syphoning the oil off of the top of the water.
6. Bottle the oil, and store in a cool dark place until ready to use.

Note: Steps 1-3 can be repeated 3 more times, using the same infusion and new plant matter, to increase strength to 100%. So if 8 oz raw plant matter contains 10% (0.8 oz) oil, this method will extract about 25% (0.2 oz) of that each time it is done.

I use the same method for making infusions (1-2X), teas (1X), decoctions (3X), juices (4X), and condensed liquids (1-4X) ...

Keep in mind, that most plants contain very little essential oil, so if that is the oil you're after, it will take a lot of plant matter to extract only a little essential oil. Many plants are also low in fats, so it may also take a lot of plant matter to extract only a little carrier / base oil, depending on the plant.


----------

