Beautiful to look at in full bloom, the sunny orange calendula – also known as marigold – has a wealth of herbal uses that are worth learning about.
With both antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, the fresh petals can be infused in boiling water, then cooled to clean minor wounds and treat conditions such as mouth ulcers or sore gums. Gargling with the infusion can soothe a sore throat and rolling a ball of petals between your fingers and applying directly to insect bites or nettle stings can be really effective in numbing the discomfort.
Related: Top 27 Medicinal Plants to Learn For Survival
How To Make a Powerful Calendula Extract
Dried Petals
It’s worth, however, gathering the petals and drying them in the sun, or in an airy, warm place to harness even more of the properties of these brilliantly colored flowers. Making your own calendula tincture or resinous extract is straightforward and rewarding. Easily stored, it’s a powerhouse addition to your herbal medicine cabinet.
Related: DIY SHTF Healing Salve
THE BEST NATURAL PAINKILLER THAT GROWS IN YOUR BACKYARD (SIMILAR TO MORPHINE)
You’ll need:
Around 50g dried calendula petals
Grain alcohol to cover – between 500 – 700 ml
Method
- Pack the calendula (not too tightly) into a suitable, clean container and pour over the alcohol. Stir gently and keep out of direct sunlight for two weeks, mixing and pressing with the spoon gently every two or three days.
- Strain the liquid through a muslin cloth into a wide, clean dish, squeezing the contents to extract as much of the calendula essence as possible.
- Cover with foil or a cloth, ensuring that the cloth does not touch the contents of the dish. Now leave until the alcohol starts to evaporate. The rate at which the liquid which start to reduce will vary according to temperature and humidity, but will take around 1 – 2 weeks on average.
- Keep checking – if you want to strain and bottle the tincture then do so while the extract is still liquid and not too viscous.
- If you prefer to make a stickier resinous extract, then wait until all of the alcohol has evaporated, and you are left with a glossy residue, which you can then spoon into a cosmetic-type jar.
Storage and Shelf Life
Both will have a long shelf life of 2 – 3 years if kept in brown/green glass or opaque containers and stored out of direct sunlight. Never take or administer any medicines or treatment without the approval of a health-care advisor, but traditional remedies include diluting drops of the tincture in water to treat ear infections, low fever or other ailments.
6 POTENT NATURAL PAIN RELIEVERS FOR PREPPERS
Related: How to Treat Allergies Naturally This Spring
People report dabbing the resin directly onto minor wounds for pain relief and healing, using the tincture as an immune system booster and to support healthy liver function. There are so many uses for calendula extract and it’s worth doing some in-depth research to learn more about the potency and potential of this remarkable plant.
Here’s how to make wild lettuce extract, the most powerful natural pain killer:
Source: askaprepper.com
RELATED:
A MEDICINAL PLANT MAP THAT SHOULD BE IN YOUR SURVIVAL KIT
OFF GRID ANTIBIOTICS – FOR WHEN THERE IS NO MEDICINE
Would you like to know how the first settlers healed themselves and what plants they used to cure everything?
Then you really need this amazing book. It is called The Lost Ways and it contains all the knowledge of our forefathers.
Here’s just a glimpse of what you’ll find in The Lost Ways:
From Ruff Simons, an old west history expert and former deputy, you’ll learn the techniques and methods used by the wise sheriffs from the frontiers to defend an entire village despite being outnumbered and outgunned by gangs of robbers and bandits, and how you can use their wisdom to defend your home against looters when you’ll be surrounded.
Native American ERIK BAINBRIDGE – who took part in the reconstruction of the native village of Kule Loklo in California, will show you how Native Americans build the subterranean roundhouse, an underground house that today will serve you as a storm shelter, a perfectly camouflaged hideout, or a bunker. It can easily shelter three to four families, so how will you feel if, when all hell breaks loose, you’ll be able to call all your loved ones and offer them guidance and shelter? Besides that, the subterranean roundhouse makes an awesome root cellar where you can keep all your food and water reserves year-round.
From Shannon Azares you’ll learn how sailors from the XVII century preserved water in their ships for months on end, even years and how you can use this method to preserve clean water for your family cost-free.
Mike Searson – who is a Firearm and Old West history expert – will show you what to do when there is no more ammo to be had, how people who wandered the West managed to hunt eight deer with six bullets, and why their supply of ammo never ran out. Remember the panic buying in the first half of 2013? That was nothing compared to what’s going to precede the collapse.
From Susan Morrow, an ex-science teacher and chemist, you’ll master “The Art of Poultice.” She says, “If you really explore the ingredients from which our forefathers made poultices, you’ll be totally surprised by the similarities with modern medicines.” Well…how would you feel in a crisis to be the only one from the group knowledgeable about this lost skill? When there are no more antibiotics, people will turn to you to save their ill children’s lives.
And believe it or not, this is not all…
Table Of Contents:
Making Your Own Beverages: Beer to Stronger Stuff
Ginger Beer: Making Soda the Old Fashioned Way
How North American Indians and Early Pioneers Made Pemmican
Spycraft: Military Correspondence During The 1700’s to 1900’s
Wild West Guns for SHTF and a Guide to Rolling Your Own Ammo
How Our Forefathers Built Their Sawmills, Grain Mills,and Stamping Mills
How Our Ancestors Made Herbal Poultice to Heal Their Wounds
What Our Ancestors Were Foraging For? or How to Wildcraft Your Table
How Our Ancestors Navigated Without Using a GPS System
How Our Forefathers Made Knives
How Our Forefathers Made Snow shoes for Survival
How North California Native Americans Built Their Semi-subterranean Roundhouses
Our Ancestors’Guide to Root Cellars
Good Old Fashioned Cooking on an Open Flame
Learning from Our Ancestors How to Preserve Water
Learning from Our Ancestors How to Take Care of Our Hygiene When There Isn’t Anything to Buy
How and Why I Prefer to Make Soap with Modern Ingredients
Temporarily Installing a Wood-Burning Stove during Emergencies
Making Traditional and Survival Bark Bread…….
Trapping in Winter for Beaver and Muskrat Just like Our Forefathers Did
How to Make a Smokehouse and Smoke Fish
Survival Lessons From The Donner Party
Get your paperback copy HERE
WHAT TO READ NEXT:
5 TECHNIQUES TO PRESERVE MEAT IN THE WILD YOU SHOULD PRACTICE
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN BACON (STEP BY STEP GUIDE)
A RETURN TO THE OLD PATHS: HOW TO MAKE PEMMICAN LIKE THE NATIVE AMERICANS
20 LOST RECIPES FROM THE PIONEERS: WHAT THEY COOKED ON THEIR JOURNEY WESTWARD
SEVEN CLASSIC GREAT DEPRESSION ERA RECIPES GRANDMA USED TO MAKE
POTTED MEAT: A LOST SKILL OF LONG TERM MEAT STORAGE
BACK TO BASICS: HOW TO MAKE AND PRESERVE LARD
THE BEST WAY TO STOCKPILE VEGETABLES OFF-GRID
OLD FASHIONED PRESERVING-GRANDPA’S RECIPE FOR CURED SMOKED HAM
HOW TO MAKE GUNPOWDER THE OLD FASHIONED WAY
SURVIVAL HERBAL RECIPES FROM OUR ANCESTORS
HOW TO PRESERVE MEAT FOR SURVIVAL LIKE OUR GRANDFATHERS
OTHER USEFUL RESOURCES:
The 3 Pioneer Survival Lessons We Should Learn
The Most Effective Home Defense Strategies
Old School Hacks for Off-Grid Living
The Medical Emergency Crash Course