Hello Herbies!
Today I wanted to share one of my favorite infused oil recipes with you. This medicine making project is suitable for beginners, so if you’re just getting started with medicine making at home, then this infused calendula oil recipe is for you. To learn about more herbs you can try with this recipe, check out our herbal monographs.
First you need to gather your ingredients. Do you want to use dried calendula flowers or fresh? I’ve done both – it really depends on what you have on hand! This batch contains dried flowers that I ordered from the MUIH Pharmacy. But you can also buy them from quality vendors like Mountain Rose Herbs. Check out our vendor page to learn more about good bulk herb vendors.
Ingredients & Equipment
- Calendula [Calendula officinalis]
- Sweet almond oil
- Mini crock pot
- 8oz glass jar
- Wooden chopstick for stirring
I decided to infuse this medicinal oil in a crock pot to let the heat speed up the extraction of the phytochemicals from herbs. You should use your crock pot on a low setting. If there is none – check your crock pot with a temperature gauge, try to keep it under 120F. If it heats up too hot, you can try unplugging it periodically to let the oil cool. I love using a mini crock pot for this kind of project. I bought mine at Goodwill for $2.99. Thrift stores always seem to have a lot of the mini ones on hand. I’m infusing this combination at a 1:16 concentration, which means 1 part herb to 16 parts oil.
Add 15g of whole dried flowers to mini-crock pot. Cover material with 8oz of sweet almond oil. Cook uncovered for 24 hours or until it stops bubbling. Note: when I make this with fresh flowers – I often keep it cooking for up to 36 hours. The fresh material has a lot more water that has to cook off before all of the constituents can be extracted into the oil. Keep stirring this brew periodically for the duration of the extraction.
–Suzi