Homemade Herbal Oils

What can be more pleasant and positive than gathering a bowl of fresh jasmine, rosemary, St. John’s Wort, calendula or chamomile flowers for preparing your own herbal oils? You may be surprised but making herbal infused oils is quite an easy thing.

Plant ingredients can be extracted by oils. You can use one herb or combine herbs in the same oil. By using different herbal combinations, you can make strong medicinal oils (for external use only) or sweet-scented massage and bath oils.

There’s a wide variety of uses for herbal infused oils: from aromatherapy and herbal bath to sprinkling such herbal oils onto your salads and other meals. They can also be made into salves or ointments.

Making herbal oils start with selecting a carrier, or base, oil. There are lots of carrier or base oils to choose from. A favorite for medicinal purposes is olive oil. For bath, massage, or cosmetic oils, some prefer to use apricot kernel oil, almond oil, or grapeseed oil because these are light and easily absorbed by the skin. Grapeseed is the lightest of the three. Also, none of these have a strong scent to overpower the herbs. For cooking oils, use corn, canola, or olive oil. A favorite for taste and health is cold-pressed, extra-virgin olive oil.

You can use fresh or dried herbs. Fresh herbs should be placed in a shaded, warm place for several hours or overnight, after picking. This allows most of the moisture to evaporate. If you don't do this, the oil will look milky, allow mold to grow, and could even sour. St. John's wort flowers, rosemary, comfrey, calendula, and chickweed are good herbs to make medicinal oils and salves from.

Use the flowers from St. John's wort with the cold infusion method. These flowers should not sit overnight; put them in oil as soon as you pick them, and when you strain the oil, do so through cheesecloth.

Make rosemary oil and salve from oils infused by the hot method. First, strip the leaves from the stems, and let them sit overnight to dry a little.

Standard portions for infused oils are 2 to 3 ounces of dry herb to 2 cups oil, but if you wish to use a simpler method: fill a glass pot with the chosen herb or herb blend, and cover it with oil plus 1 more inch. Then choose which method you are going to use: hot or cold.

If prepared and stored properly (in a cool dry place) they can be considered fresh and usable for up to one year. However, sometimes homemade herbal oils grow mold. It can mean that either low quality oil was used, or there was moisture left in the container. It is necessary to be 100% certain that there’s no moist in the jar which you are going to use for preparing or storing infused oil.

Cold Method

1. Let the herb you want to infuse sit overnight, so it will lose water.
2. Fill a jar with as much herb as you want to infuse to 3" from the top.
3. Fill the jar with oil enough to cover the herb, plus 2". Because herb exposed to air will mold, make sure all the herb is covered.
4. Let sit in the sun or in a greenhouse for six to eight weeks.
5. Strain into a clean, airtight, dark jar. Label, date, and store in a cool, dark place. Don't be surprised if the oil doesn't smell like the plant. It most often doesn't.
6. For a stronger oil, repeat the process. Double oleate oils are twice as strong, and triple oleate, three times as strong, etc.

Hot Method

1. Let the herb you want to infuse sit overnight, so it will lose water.
2. Fill a pot with as much herb as you want to infuse. Use a non-reactive pot. Glass is a good choice. You also can use stainless steel, enamel, or cast iron. Do not use aluminum or copper.
3. Cover the herb with oil and add two more inches of oil.
4. A double boiler is convenient, but if you don't have one, put the pot in a bigger pot that has water in it. The oil should heat slowly over low heat for three hours. Do not overheat because too intense heat will destroy the volatile oils you are trying to collect. You can do this in a crockpot on the lowest setting also.
5. Strain into a clean, airtight jar, and store in a cool, dark place.