Herbal ointments. Medicinal ointments based on herbs and bee products

To look attractive and irresistible, a woman puts in a lot of effort. Since the time of Cleopatra, the better half of humanity has used beauty recipes given by nature. The experience gained by previous generations is widely used today. This indicates that folk recipes time-tested.

Making nourishing cream at home is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. Any housewife has all its components. Those that are not available can be easily purchased at the pharmacy (herbs) or at the market (beeswax). In addition, you can choose them yourself based on your needs. The main thing is to stick to proportion.

A nourishing cream based on medicinal herbs, prepared by your own hands, will become an indispensable assistant in skin care. Thanks to its thick structure, it nourishes the skin well and regulates its moisture level. Herbal supplements promote rapid cell regeneration and stimulate blood circulation. The soft melting texture of the cream is well absorbed, leaving a light, pleasant aroma.

To prepare nourishing cream at home you will need:

Olive oil.
Beeswax.
Sea buckthorn oil.
Essential oil tea tree(2 – 3 drops).
Herbs: nettle, chamomile, thyme, mint, sage, St. John's wort.
Honey.
Two containers (for a water bath).
Two glass (ceramic) containers for heating the base.
Spoon for measuring and mixing ingredients.
Glass containers for packaging finished cream.

Preparation of infusion.

First you need to prepare a herbal tincture (infusion) based on olive oil. Infusion, it is also called macerate, healing herbs, infused with an oil base. When infused, the oil, in addition to its properties, “absorbs” the properties of medicinal herbs.

Fresh and dry herbs are used for tincture. The oil must be first cold pressed (this information is on the label).

Place nettle, thyme, chamomile, sage, St. John's wort and mint herbs in equal quantities in a glass container and pour in oil. There should be a layer of oil above the surface of the herbs. Wrap the container in paper (cloth) and leave to infuse for five days at room temperature. Shake the jar with its contents periodically.

Preparation of the decoction.

Place equal amounts of herbs in a glass container and fill with water. To put on water bath and stand for 15 minutes. Remove and let cool.

Preparing the cream.

The preparation of any cream consists of two phases, fatty and water. The fatty phase includes oils and waxes. In water - an infusion of herbs and essential oils.

The principle is that after heating the fatty phase to a certain temperature, an aqueous phase heated to the same temperature is gradually introduced into it. This cream consists of 40% fatty phase and 60% water phase.

To prepare 50 grams of cream you will need: wax - 4 g, infusion - 13 g, essential oil - 3 g, decoction - 25 g, honey - 5 g.

Place the pre-strained infusion in a water bath. Add sea buckthorn oil to it. Heat to 60° C. Add the liquid phase and honey in small portions with continuous stirring.

At the same time, melt the wax in a separate container in a water bath. Bring its temperature to 60° C while stirring.

Add oil to the melted wax. Mix.

Remove from the bath. Cool to 40° C. Add tea tree essential oil. Mix again.

Ointments, scientifically speaking, are dosage forms of soft consistency intended for external use. They are usually prepared from powders of medicinal plants, but plant juices and their dry and thick herbal extracts can be used. Unsalted fat, petroleum jelly, vegetable oil or butter are used as an ointment base.

Pork fat has a melting point of 34-46°C and is whitish in color. On its basis, ointments are obtained that are easy to wash off hot water. Pork fat is quite well absorbed by the skin and promotes the absorption of substances mixed with it. active ingredients. However, ointment with pork fat has a drawback - it deteriorates quite quickly.

Butter also penetrates the skin well. Thanks to this, ointments prepared with butter have a deeper effect than, for example, those prepared with Vaseline. But also ointments based butter are not stored for a long time.

Goose fat It has an even lower melting point than pork (26-34°C), it is very soft. Previously, it was often used as the basis of ointments used for frostbite.

Beef fat is white and has a dense consistency. Melting point 42-50°C. Often used in a mixture with pork fat (to increase its hardness).

Vegetable oils - peach, almond, apricot, peanut, olive, sunflower, soybean, cottonseed - have a liquid consistency, so they cannot be used as an independent fat base. They are usually used as part of complex ointment bases, which are alloys of vegetable oils with solid fats, waxes and other similar sealing substances. Ointments prepared with vegetable oils last longer.

Waxes - distinguish between animal origin (beeswax, spermaceti, lanolin) and plant origin (waxes from pine needles, roses, jasmine, azalea). Beeswax(yellow and white) fuses well with other waxes and fats. It is often used in wax ointments to give greater density to too soft bases (for example, an alloy of 1 part yellow wax and 3 parts is prepared sunflower oil or an alloy of 1 part white wax, 2 parts spermaceti and 7 parts peach oil)

When preparing medicinal ointments, preservatives are also used to prevent them from deteriorating during long-term storage, and fragrances, which give the ointments nice smell. Geranium is used as preservatives, lavender oils, cinnamon alcohol.

Preparation of ointment: the ointment base is heated in a water bath, then part of it is mixed in a porcelain mortar with the powder of a medicinal plant using a pestle, after which the rest of the ointment base is added to the required weight (according to the recipe). If essential oils or other volatiles, then they are introduced into last resort. Ointments containing up to 10-25% of plant materials are usually prepared from medicinal plants.

To store ointments, use wide-necked jars made of glass, porcelain or plastic, with well-closing lids. Fill them to the top and store them in a cool place, protected from light.

IN modern world choice cosmetics for every taste and budget - huge! Just as in pharmacies today you can buy a remedy for almost any disease, so in a cosmetics store you can buy creams, masks and other products chemical industry for all skin types and any problems.

But here's the problem - the more the pharmaceutical industry grows, the more often people turn to homeopathy and folk medicine, the greater the choice of cosmetics, the more often we look for “eco”, “bio” or “organic” marks on their labels. And usually, such products with natural ingredients They cost several times more than usual.

Few people think that anyone can make natural creams and ointments at home on their own.

Of course, our dear summer residents are the luckiest here (as always). After all, we have been communicating with nature on a first-name basis for a long time, and almost every second person grows useful medicinal herbs on or near their plot, which are much more effective than any of their chemical counterparts. Today we will tell you how to use them to prepare healthy creams and ointments at home “with your own hands.”

How to prepare an ointment based on medicinal herbs.

For the simplest ointment you need to prepare herbal decoction, but not simple. We will cook the grass not in water, but in the fatty component, which will be our ballast that holds useful material and making up the consistency of the ointment. You can use Vaseline, butter or vegetable oil, fresh pork fat(preferably interior, but lard will also work).

Mix 10-15 gr. herbs and 100g. fat base, simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Strain the resulting mass (hot) and pour into jars, close tightly. Cool, then store in the refrigerator.

Juices and herbal extracts can be mixed into the base without heating. But you need to add liquid drop by drop and immediately and stir until you hear a slight crackling sound.

How to make organic herbal cream.

For a cream as a ballast/base, simple fat is not the most suitable product (especially if it is a face cream, and you have extremely sensitive skin, prone to inflammation), it is better to purchase lanolin at the pharmacy (which is not a problem at all today). Melt it on fire with vegetable oil in a 1:1 ratio. Cool. Then very slowly, in small portions, pour into oil mixture decoction, infusion or herbal juice.

Yolks and honey are often added to creams. In this case, they are prepared using technology homemade mayonnaise. First, grind the yolks with honey until white, then add vegetable oil drop by drop at the rate of 30-50 g. for 1 yolk, stir thoroughly. And finally, also drop by drop, add a herbal decoction, infusion or juice.

Worth knowing.

To give the cream or ointment a pleasant aroma, you can use natural fragrances -aroma oils. Remember that only a few drops are needed, or even one or two, this will be quite enough.

Aromatic oils, like herbs, can sometimes cause allergic reactions. Before applying a cream or ointment based on them to large areas of skin, test the product for inside elbow. Apply a small amount and monitor your skin's reaction throughout the day. If there is no redness, the product can be safely used.

You can additionally fortify the cream using oil solutions such fat-soluble vitamins like A and E. They are sold in any pharmacy.

Creams and ointments homemade They don’t last long, so you need to cook them in small portions. Always store such products in the refrigerator, only in glass containers (jars, bottles); before use, check whether the ointment or cream has deteriorated.

Ointment based medicinal herbs will relieve irritation and soothe the skin from insect bites, burns, abrasions, contusions, bruises.

You can purchase such ointments from online supplier sites, your local cosmetic store, or your local pharmacy. But did you know that making herbal ointment at home is not difficult?

Part homemade ointment included three basic ingredients:

- herbs;
- oil;
- wax.

You can also add what you think you need. essential oils; calculated at approximately five drops per 30 g of composition. Here is the list essential oils, which are good to add to the ointment: lavender, tea tree, chamomile and myrrh.

Herbs

List of herbs traditionally used for homemade herbal ointment:

- calendula,
- chamomile,
- falling asleep,
- echinacea,
- ant tree bark,
- lavender,
- yarrow,
- St. John's wort,
- goldenseal,
- myrrh,
- plantain,
- comfrey.

Each herb has certain properties, which you can learn about by typing a query like “ beneficial features calendula."

You can make homemade ointment from either one plant or several herbs. When making ointments for babies or children, adhere to the rule “the simpler the better” - to avoid allergic reactions. Great herbs for baby ointments include calendula, chamomile and lavender.

It is advisable to purchase herbs from powder form, because fine grinding allows you to save more healing properties, thanks to their complete dissolution in the oil tincture. If you are using whole herbs, you need them grind using a coffee grinder.

Oil

The first step in preparing an ointment is to create an oil tincture. I strongly recommend using for this purpose olive oil . This oil has strong antimicrobial properties and does not turn bitter over time.

To make a tincture, add glass jar to the middle with finely ground grass. Fill the grass with oil so that it does not come into contact with air. But don't fill the jar to the brim! The grass will absorb the oils and swell.

Close the jar tightly with a lid and leave it on a sunny window for 2-3 weeks. Every day the bank needs chat so that the herbs are mixed with the oil. To make an infusion faster, cover the bottom of the slow cooker with a piece of cloth and fill it with water so that it does not leak out when you lower the jar into it. Place the jar in the pan, close the lid and set to low.

Hot water will speed up the process of extracting healing properties from herbs, saturating the oil with their color and smell.

Personally, I let my jars sit in the sun for a few weeks. After that, I heat them with heat and leave for another couple of days. This gives my ointment a beautiful dark green hue, indicating high concentration herbal extract and provides maximum healing effect.

After your oil has infused, you need to strain it through gauze, folded in half or three.

Wax

In order for homemade ointment to be solid, you need wax. Beeswax works great for this purpose, but if you are a vegetarian, you can use carnauba wax or candelilla wax, which are based on... herbal ingredients. For a cup (200 ml) of oil tincture, use 30-60 g of wax, depending on how hard you want the ointment to be. If you live in a warm climate, you may want a firmer product, and vice versa if you live in a cold climate.

Once you've added the wax to the oil, heat the entire mixture over low heat, stirring slowly until completely dissolved.
An easy way to determine if you have reached the desired hardness of the ointment is to drop a small amount of the liquid mixture onto wax paper. After the mixture has cooled, taste it by touch. If it is hard at first, but melts on your finger, then the ointment is ready and can be poured into containers.

At this stage I add to my ointment liquid vitamin E and grapefruit seed extract - just a couple of drops per cup of oil. These ingredients act as natural preservatives and increase the shelf life of the ointment.
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All that remains for you is to pour the mixture into containers and let it cool. You can use half-liter glass jars.

In winter, in the off-season, and even with sudden changes in weather, many people feel worse. The hand involuntarily reaches for the pills, but in many cases one could do without them. Since ancient times, people have learned to use medicinal plants to treat and prevent many diseases. And more than 30% of themselves medicines obtained from plants. In general, one way or another, we cannot do without medicinal plants.

About 17,000 species of higher flowering plants grow on the territory of our country, of which more than 500 species are recognized as medicinal. In plants, during their life processes, they form various substances, capable of having a corresponding effect on humans and animals. Alkaloids, cardiac glycosides, many vitamins, minerals and other substances useful to humans are found in plants, and when properly collected, processed, stored and used, they can be used for treatment. Very few herbs are used in their raw form; the rest need to be brought to an acceptable state. Typically, the collected plants are dried and then used to prepare medicines of the following forms:

1. Infusions and decoctions. Infusions are prepared from herbs, flowers and leaves by filling them with water (usually 1:10) and heating in a water bath for 15 minutes. Decoctions are prepared in the same way, but heated for at least 30 minutes. Cool, strain and use according to the recipe.

2. Tinctures - prepared plants are poured with alcohol or vodka (1:5, and for potent ones 1:10), infused at room temperature in the dark for at least 7 days, strained, and left in a cool place.

3. Oils – prepared plant parts are poured with vegetable oil and heated in a water bath.

4. Herbs and teas – mixtures of plants used to treat the same disease (heart tea, kidney tea and etc.). This dosage form can also be used for medicinal baths (pine baths and etc.).

The collection of medicinal plants should be done during their period. active growth(blooming) in dry morning weather, dry in the shade in a well-ventilated area, store in a well-ventilated container. If you couldn’t prepare the plants you needed yourself, don’t worry. There are now plenty of all kinds of herbs and mixtures in pharmacies. There would be a desire.

So, let's remember our favorite domestic ones medicinal plants. We hope you find it interesting.

pharmaceutical camomile

It is used for inflammation and spasms of the intestines, for menstrual irregularities, as a diaphoretic for feverish conditions, for allergies. Externally, chamomile is used as antiseptic for rinses, lotions, enemas and baths.

Peppermint

The medicinal raw materials are leaves and grass.

It has anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, vasodilating, carminative effect. Used for cardiac, nervous, stomach diseases. Increases appetite, reduces nausea, soothes hiccups, enhances intestinal motility. Mint is used in pharmaceuticals and cosmetology.

Melissa officinalis

The medicinal raw materials are the leaves and tops of the stems.

Used as a sedative, anticonvulsant, analgesic, cardiac remedy. Melissa reduces shortness of breath, palpitations, lowers blood pressure, and also has a good effect on the stomach and intestines. Melissa has a pleasant lemony scent, so it is widely used in teas and baths.

Oregano

Medicinal raw materials are flowers, leaves and upper parts of shoots.

Infusions and decoctions of oregano are used for intestinal atony, for damage to the secretion of the digestive glands, for diabetes, and also as a sedative for heart patients, a diaphoretic, and an expectorant for pulmonary diseases. This is one of the people's favorite herbs. It is part of breast fees. People even use oregano to increase milk production in nursing mothers.

Small-leaved linden

The medicinal raw materials are flowers collected during the flowering of the tree.

Used Linden blossom as a diaphoretic for colds, as well as for gargling, relieving headaches, nosebleeds and fainting.

Coltsfoot

The leaves are the medicinal raw material.

Coltsfoot decoctions are used mainly as an expectorant for lung diseases, as well as for inflammatory diseases gastrointestinal tract, kidney, Bladder. Included in breastfeeding fees.

Common thyme (thyme)

The decoction is used as an expectorant for diseases respiratory tract, as a mild pain reliever for compresses on sore joints and muscles, for soothing aromatic baths. Thyme herb is used to prepare the medicine Pertussin.

Salvia officinalis

Medicinal raw materials are flowers and top part stem.

Infusions and decoctions of sage are often used for gargling, teeth and various wounds. Tea from the leaves is drunk internally for bronchitis and inflammation. renal pelvis, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, liver, gallbladder, as a diuretic, choleretic, astringent.

St. John's wort, common

The medicinal raw material is the upper part of the grass stems with flowers and leaves, collected during the flowering period.

St. John's wort preparations are used for inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and for rinsing the mouth for gum disease. Since St. John's wort has an anti-inflammatory and regenerating effect, preparations made from it are used to treat wounds, burns, ulcers, abscesses and other skin lesions.

Great celandine

The medicinal raw material of celandine is the aerial part of the plant.

IN scientific medicine Celandine juice is used to cauterize warts and kandilomas. Thirty percent tincture is used to burn the gums during periodontal disease. Ointments based on celandine are used for skin diseases.

Yarrow

The medicinal raw material is grass collected during the flowering period.

Yarrow preparations are used as a bitter to improve appetite, as a hemostatic various bleedings(hemorrhoidal, uterine). Yarrow has an anti-allergic effect and accelerates wound healing.

Valerian officinalis

The medicinal raw materials are the rhizomes.

Valerian preparations have a regulating effect on the nervous, neuromuscular system, expand coronary vessels, normalize blood circulation, slightly enhance intestinal motility and suppress fermentation processes. Valerian is used as a sedative for agitation, insomnia, neuroses and other nervous conditions.

Hawthorn blood red

The medicinal raw materials are the flowers and fruits of the bush.

Hawthorn preparations reduce the excitability of the heart muscle, improve heart function, improve coronary and cerebral circulation, relieve arrhythmia. Hawthorn preparations are used for hypertension, arrhythmias, neuroses, insomnia and other disorders of the cardiovascular system.

Rosehip cinnamon

Medicinal raw materials are fruits in the period of full ripening.

Viburnum common

Medicinal raw materials are bark and berries.

In medicine, preparations from viburnum bark are used as an astringent, anticonvulsant, hemostatic and reduces uterine contractions.

The fruits are used as vitamin remedy, as well as a remedy that soothes inflammation in the stomach and intestines. The berries are also used in cooking.

Motherwort cordial

The medicinal raw material is the grass during its flowering period.

Motherwort preparations are used as a substitute for valerian to regulate the activity of the central nervous system. nervous system, as a sedative for neuroses and hypertension.

Calendula, marigold

The medicinal raw materials are the flowers and the upper part of the stem.

Calendula preparations have a pronounced bactericidal property, as well as calming qualities. Used for stomach diseases, hypertension, as well as for rinsing and ointments.

Blooming Sally

The medicinal raw material is the above-ground part of the herb.

Ivan tea preparations reduce allergies and have an anti-inflammatory and calming effect. Their enveloping effect is also very useful, thanks to which fireweed is used for diseases of the stomach and intestines.

Burdock

The medicinal raw material is the root.

An infusion of burdock root is used as a diuretic, as well as a diaphoretic and laxative. Since burdock roots contain inulin, its preparations are used for diabetes. Burdock oil is prepared from olive or almond oil.

Large plantain

The medicinal raw materials are leaves and seeds.

Plantain preparations are used for stomach diseases with low acidity. The seeds contain a lot of mucus, so decoctions from the seeds are also very useful for gastritis, enteritis and other gastrointestinal diseases.

Well then, friends. Let's take more active advantage of what Mother Nature generously gives us and, perhaps, this will allow us to be healthier.