Part II An Herbal Medicine Chest

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There are dozens of good recipes for herb al salves. At this point, though, I make mainly two:

All-purpose healing salve: This is a wonderful salve. I use it on all of my family's cuts and wounds to help stop the bleeding, soothe the pain, and promote healing. Just rub it on the injured spot as often as desired.

As just one example of how well it works, I cut the tip-top of one finger off once while preparing food for canning. I put some salve on my finger, put the piece back on with a Band-Aid, and went back to work. The finger hurt only minimally and healed completely in several days. (Of course, if you suffer serious burns or cuts, you should get appropriate medical help.)

The recipe calls for 1-1/2 ounces of comfrey leaves (these aid in cell production) . . . 3/4 ounce of plantain leaves (these promote healing and help protect the skin) . . . 3/4 ounce of chickweed leaves (to help reduce inflammation). . . 1/2 ounce of yarrow leaves (an antibacterial agent) . . . 1/2 ounce of calendula flowers (these promote healing) . . . and 1/2 ounce of wormwood leaves (to help relieve pain). I brew them together for two to three hours or overnight, depending on whether the herbs are dry or green . . . I cook the comfrey, plantain, and chickweed longer than the more volatile yarrow, wormwood, and calendula.

Itching and rash salve: The main ingredients of this salve are 8 ounces of fresh chickweed leaves and 4 ounces of comfrey leaves per 16 ounces of oil. It is an excellent remedy for all itching and rash ailments. It's particularly good for treating diaper rash and poison ivy or oak— after you've carefully cleaned the area of the harmful oils.

Homemade tinctures and salves are like homegrown foods—I can feel good about them because I made them and know their quality and contents. There's nothing more satisfying for me than healing myself, my family, and my friends with herbs I've grown and turned into tinctures and salves.

The recipes for homegrown medicines I gave here are the ones I make and always have on hand. They're not much trouble to prepare and they're as easy to use as any drugstore product. Along with the remedies I shared in Part I of this article, these tinctures and salves can give you a good start on creating your own homegrown herbal medicine chest.

There's a lot more you can learn about medicinal herbs, and there are people much more knowledgeable than I am. I learned almost everything I've shared in this article from Donna Leight and Leslie Tierra, two acupuncturists and herbalists currently practicing in Santa Cruz, California. And, as I did last time, I'd like to wholeheartedly recommend Michael Tierra's The Way of Herbs ($5.70 postpaid from Simon & Schuster, Mail-Order Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020). Of the 15 herb books I have, it's the one that I really use.

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