Antimicrobial Hand Moisturizer
We're all washing our hands a lot right now, and as nurses have pointed out for years, this gets pretty hard on your skin after a while. Stripping away the natural oils from your hands leaves them dry and chapped, but washing well is an absolutely necessity.
For those of you with access to wild areas for foraging, or an herb garden, here are 5 plants to harvest to make antimicrobial infused oils, to use for moisturizing your skin after washing your hands:
Cut/crush/crumble or grind your dry material, and put it in a glass jar, until it's 2/3rds full. Heat your oil (gently!) separately, and pour it into the jar over the dry material, gradually. Olive oil is a popular choice. Use a clean spoon to stir and pack the dry material as it gets coated in the oil. Keep going until the jar is nearly full and the herbs are completely covered, without air pockets trapped below them. Push the herbs down if they've floated to the surface. You might want to use a clean, sterilized weight to keep them down. Then close the jar.
Then you can keep the jar in a warm place (beside a woodstove or radiator, on top of the fridge, etc) for 3-6 weeks while the active components leech out into the oil. Shake it periodically to stir the herbs around. If you're putting it in a sunny windowsill for warmth, put a brown paper bag or other opaque cover on it to keep sunlight from causing any of the ingredients to break down.
Finally, strain out the herbs (a clean reusable coffee filter works, or cheesecloth) and store the oil in a clean jar or squeezy bottle by the sink. Whenever you've washed and dried your hands and feel the need for some moisturizer, drip a bit of oil onto the back of your hands and rub it in.
For obvious reasons, you should test a bit of the plain oil and then the infused oil on your skin before using it regularly, especially if you have any contact allergies or sensitivities. Do not eat the oil; it's for topical/external use. If you're worried, consult a trained herbalist and/doctor first. This info is for you to use at your own sensible discretion.
For those of you with access to wild areas for foraging, or an herb garden, here are 5 plants to harvest to make antimicrobial infused oils, to use for moisturizing your skin after washing your hands:
Yarrow
Yarrow grows plentifully in the mid-Atlantic and can be harvested before or while it is flowering. The leaves and flowers both are astringent, anti-septic and broadly antimicrobial. These same properties make it a good wound poultice. For the infused oil, gather leaves and flowers, wash them, then dry them (a home dehydrator or a small solar dehydrator will help do this quickly and preserve the active ingredients). Harvest a few big handfuls of the leaves/or flowers from several plants, if possible; yarrow is a perennial and will keep growing if you only take a little from each plant, so you can return to harvest again in the future. Look for yarrow in meadows, along driveways and in flower gardens; it is a ferny, lacy plant that resembles carrots and asparagus leaves. Don't mix it up with Queen Anne's Lace (toxic); look closely at the leaves to tell the difference. Here's a good overview on how to identify yarrow vs Queen Anne's Lace and Hemlock: http://www.herbstalk.org/.../one-of-these-things-is-not...
Witch hazel
Yes, the normal extraction method for witch hazel is boiling it in water or letting it steep in alcohol for a tincture, and that's certainly an option. You can also buy ready-made witch hazel extract, although this lacks most of the tannins that make witch hazel so useful in killing microbes. However, you can strip fresh witch hazel bark and leaves and macerate them, dry them, then steep them directly in warm olive oil as you would for any herbal infused oil, to get a lovely antimicrobial oil. Alternatively, you can dry the bark and leaves first, and grind the dry material into powder, then infuse the oil with that. See the Forest Service guide on how to identify witch hazel in your local wilderness: http://www.fs.fed.us/.../plant.../hamamelis_virginiana.shtml
Comfrey
Russian comfrey and common comfrey are both popular garden plants with a tendency to colonize outside the garden, but may be hard to find growing wild in the mid-Atlantic. Ask your friends with herb gardens if they grow it and can give you a few root cuttings to plant in your garden, and you'll be ready to harvest this perennial by late summer. Gather the leaves mid-morning on a dry day, and dry them completely in your dehydrator, then cut/crumble the leaves for your infused oil. A stronger and more broadly antimicrobial oil infusion can be made from the roots, which can be gathered from mature comfrey plants and dried, then ground, before infusing into oil. Care should be taken not to overuse this preparation as it can be quite strong. See this study for further details on the active constituents in various types and parts of comfrey: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6631335/
Mullein
It's a wonderfully common wild plant and an increasingly popular native gardening plant; it's biennial and sometimes called the 'Appalachian toilet paper plant' because of the frequent use of its leaves for that purpose. The whole plant, including the leaves and roots but especially the flowers, is astringent and antibacterial. Antimicrobial activity has been observed in some studies but not in others, so broader application against viruses is disputed, but antibacterial properties against gram-positive bacteria and yeasts have been confirmed. Mullein is also very soothing and anti-inflammatory, making it a good, gentle choice for anyone with sensitive skin. Gather the leaves, roots and/or flowers (whichever is available at the time, though please don't harvest roots until the plant is nearing the end of its second year) and dry them well, then crumble them for your infused oil. See: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1076/phbi.40.8.587.14657
Blackberry leaves
The familiar European blackberry that most of us have spent hours picking through for its sweet berries happens to also be a great medicinal plant. Harvest and dry the leaves (and/or the roots) and crumble them for an antimicrobial infused oil that is also a treatment for scales and psoriasis. See: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4127818/
Other good options include:
Calendula resina
Rosemary
Lavender
Infused oils are easy for anyone to make at home. It is VERY important, however, to start out with DRY material to infuse. Using wilted or fresh leaves will introduce water into your oil, which in turn makes the oil more likely to go rancid or grow mold. Many blogs will carelessly recommend using fresh herbs; mistrust their advice if you see this. They may never have tried it themselves. IF you want more immediate results without waiting to dehydrate your herbs, then simmer the fresh materials in water to make a tea-wash, or use alcohol to make a tincture, but don't use them in oil if you plan to store it for any length of time.
Cut/crush/crumble or grind your dry material, and put it in a glass jar, until it's 2/3rds full. Heat your oil (gently!) separately, and pour it into the jar over the dry material, gradually. Olive oil is a popular choice. Use a clean spoon to stir and pack the dry material as it gets coated in the oil. Keep going until the jar is nearly full and the herbs are completely covered, without air pockets trapped below them. Push the herbs down if they've floated to the surface. You might want to use a clean, sterilized weight to keep them down. Then close the jar.
Then you can keep the jar in a warm place (beside a woodstove or radiator, on top of the fridge, etc) for 3-6 weeks while the active components leech out into the oil. Shake it periodically to stir the herbs around. If you're putting it in a sunny windowsill for warmth, put a brown paper bag or other opaque cover on it to keep sunlight from causing any of the ingredients to break down.
Finally, strain out the herbs (a clean reusable coffee filter works, or cheesecloth) and store the oil in a clean jar or squeezy bottle by the sink. Whenever you've washed and dried your hands and feel the need for some moisturizer, drip a bit of oil onto the back of your hands and rub it in.
For obvious reasons, you should test a bit of the plain oil and then the infused oil on your skin before using it regularly, especially if you have any contact allergies or sensitivities. Do not eat the oil; it's for topical/external use. If you're worried, consult a trained herbalist and/doctor first. This info is for you to use at your own sensible discretion.
Safety Note
Be cautious when using any medicinal plants. All plants are subject to variability in cultivar, age, growing location, soil, climate, stress, fertilization, etc. Thus, dosage with any herb or medicinal plant is never precise, as it is with isolated chemicals, and caution is required with any supplementation or therapeutic use of plant-derived medicines. Please consult with a trained professional if relying upon herbal remedies, and always remember to inform your primary care physician if you use plant-based supplements or medicines. There can be interactions with prescribed medications, as well as allergic reactions. When first using any medicinal plant, start small and observe caution; be alert for signs of negative reaction and discontinue if side effects arise, until you can discuss your concerns with a trained herbalist. Natural remedies are still chemicals! Use common sense and be safe.
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