Homesteader Depot

Tag: medicinal plants

  • Home Remedies Only Mother Nature Could Come Up With

    Home Remedies Only Mother Nature Could Come Up With

    Even with modern science, many home remedies are even more effective than their commercial alternatives. If you prefer to save the commercial remedies for more severe symptoms, learning some simple home remedies will make you feel better while they make your family feel better.

    Whether you choose to cultivate them in your garden or forage for them, medicinal plants and oils have been successfully used for millennia.  In fact, some of them have been used as far back as ancient Egyptian times.

    Marsh Mallow

    Treats inflammations and irritations of the respiratory mucous membranes and urinary membranes. On the outside, you can apply it to bruises, aching muscles, insect bites, splinters, and sprains.

    Aloe Vera

    Well known for its ability to relieve skin irritations like burns and sunburns as well as cuts and other inflammation, Aloe Vera sap can also be ingested to help with digestive problems, chronic constipation, and ulcerative colitis.

    Pot Marigold

    On the outside, you can use pot marigold for bites, stings, sore eyes, and sprains. On the inside, it can treat chronic infection and fevers.

    Chamomile

    In addition to being great for stress relief and helping you sleep, it can also be used for toothaches, earaches, and neuralgia.

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    Chinese Yam

    This sweet tasting option is great for calming your stomach, as well as counteracts tiredness, helps with weight loss, poor digestion, asthma, and even emotional issues. Used as a balm, it can treat skin ulcers, abscesses and boils.

    Echinacea

    We could have a home remedy list without including this immune booster.  In addition to helping you fight off whatever bug is making its way around the office, it can also be used topically for stings and bites.

    Siberian Ginseng

    Use this herb as a preventative measure for, well, almost everything.  Its properties can be used to help:

    • Angina
    • Anti-Inflammatory
    • Geriatric Debility
    • High Cholesterol
    • Improves Memory
    • Increases Endurance
    • Insomnia
    • Menopausal Problems
    • Mental Stress
    • Physical Stress
    • Bone Marrow Suppression (due to radiation and chemotherapy)

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    Tea Tree Essential Oil

    Look at any label for a natural remedy; there is a good chance one of the ingredients listed will be tea tree oil.  Nicknamed the “medicine cabinet in a bottle,” it can be used dozens of ways.  We’ve narrowed the list down to just over sixty, but there are many more. If you can only keep one thing handy in your first aid kit, this would be your one. So, without further ado, away we go, you can use tea tree oil for:

    1. Abrasions
    2. Acne
    3. Allergies
    4. Arthritis
    5. Asthma
    6. Athletes Foot
    7. Bacterial Infections
    8. Bad Breath
    9. Bladder Infection
    10. Blisters
    11. Boils
    12. Bronchitis
    13. Bruises
    14. Bunions
    15. Burns
    16. Calluses/Corns
    17. Canker Sores
    18. Carbuncles
    19. Chapped Lips
    20. Chicken Pox
    21. Insect Bites
    22. Cold Sores
    23. Coughs
    24. Dandruff
    25. Dermatitis
    26. Dry Skin
    27. Eczema
    28. Emphysema
    29. Fungus
    30. Gout
    31. Gum Disease
    32. Hives
    33. Homemade Mouthwash
    34. Immune System Booting
    35. Inflammation
    36. Insect Repellant
    37. Jock Itch
    38. Laryngitis
    39. Muscle Aches/Pains
    40. Nail Fungus
    41. Psoriasis
    42. Rashes
    43. Rheumatism
    44. Ringworm
    45. Rubella
    46. Scabies
    47. Sciatica
    48. Seborrhea
    49. Shingles
    50. Shock
    51. Sinusitis
    52. Sore Muscles
    53. Sore Throat
    54. Staph Infection
    55. Sunburn
    56. Thrush
    57. Tonsillitis
    58. Vaginal Infection
    59. Viral Infections
    60. Warts

    Final Words…

    Keep in mind that the information above should not take the place of advice from a doctor, especially for serious illnesses or infection.  Additionally, some natural remedies can have adverse reactions if mixed with prescription or over the counter meds.  If you are thinking of starting a supplement or are taking a prescription, check with your doctor to see what you should avoid preventing any harmful side effects.

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  • Benefits of Aloe Vera

    Benefits of Aloe Vera

    The benefits of any plant should always be weighed against the difficulty of cultivating it.  In the case of aloe vera, there are no difficulties to weigh against the long list of benefits.  The list of both proven and supposed benefits is too long to include here, but these are a few of the known benefits of this wonder plant.

     

    Easy to Grow

    You don’t need a green thumb, or even garden space to grow aloe vera.  Aloe vera can be grown in a container, tolerates anything from partial shade to full sun, is perennial, propagates on its own, and can look quite nice with grown among succulents.

    Burn Treatment

    Aloe vera is among the best treatments for burns, including sun burn.  Growing it yourself allows you to get all the benefits without having to spend money on a product that includes alcohol which is terrible for burns.

    Boosts Immunity

    An ounce of prevention is always better than a pound of cure, and aloe vera contains antioxidants and antibacterial can help prevent illness.

    Natural Laxative

    The latex layer just beneath the skin of the aloe vera plant is a safe and natural laxative.  Despite the safety of periodic use of aloe latex as a laxative, it should not be used daily as a preventative measure.

    Dental Health

    Studies have shown that pure aloe vera juice can be just as effective in fighting plaque as conventional mouth wash.  Aloe vera gel can also help with the pain of cancer sores and speed their healing.

     

    With all these benefits and more, and not a single reason not to, get some aloe vera started in your garden or in pot now so you can start benefiting from one of the most useful medicinal plants that you could ever grow.

     

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  • How to Make Herb-Infused Oil

    How to Make Herb-Infused Oil

    Simple, homemade herb-infused oils are a very easy, affordable and healthy way to use herbs in your garden for topical use or to add flavor to your cooking. Whether you simply want a fragrant, herbal oil to use as a moisturizer, or you’d like to harness the healing power of your medicinal herbs, it’s a great thing to know how to infuse them into oil. You can use the oils as a base for simple DIY healing balms. There are a number of home remedies you can make with infused oils as a base.

    For topical use and to add to lotions and balms, almond oil works best, and for cooking, olive oil is preferable. But feel free to experiment with different oils and see what you like best!

    There are two ways to make the infused oil:

    The first method, which is more effective at maintaining the healing properties and fragrance of the herb but takes longer, is to take your thoroughly dried herbs and stuff into a jar. Then cover completely with oil and set on a windowsill or shelf, preferably that gets direct or indirect sunlight for at least a portion of the day. Let sit for 2-3 weeks, shaking every day or so.

    The second method is the quicker method, but because it uses heat, you will lose some of the properties of the herbs. There are a number of ways to do this one. The easiest is to place your in a saucepan over low heat and cover with oil. Keep it very low and gently stir frequently so the oil doesn’t burn. Alternatively, you can use a small crock pot, like the ones they make for fondue, by simply adding your herbs and oil and letting it cook for a few hours. This is easier than doing it on the stove.

    Once your oil is properly infused, you can strain the herbs out and keep in a bottle or jar as you would any other oil. They are now free to be applied to your skin as needed, as an ingredient in lotions or balms, or in every day cooking to add flavor.

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  • How to Propagate and Use Comfrey

    How to Propagate and Use Comfrey

    Free medicine doesn’t just come from the government (kidding!).

    The wonder plant comfrey is one of the easiest herbs to grow and among other amazing benefits it has been known to speed healing in bruises and broken bones.

    One hardly needs a green thumb to take advantage of this plant’s healing properties.  Comfrey is most commonly grown from root divisions.  These can be purchased online from your favorite gardening website, or even on Amazon. But even easier, they can easily be taken out of ground from any mature comfrey plant that you have access to without doing the slightest damage to the existing parent plant.

    If making your own cuttings, simply dig up the entire parent plant, and cut off the existing leaves. You can save them for poultice or just “chop and drop” them near any plant that you wish to add nutrients to.

    Then divide the root base-which is about all there is going to be left of the plant after removing the leaves-into as many pieces as you can given the plant that you have to work with. Cutting the pieces too small may reduce the chances of survival or at least increase the time it will take for the cutting to regrow, try going with pieces about the size of your fingers.

    Next, all you need to do is put the new cuttings in containers with potting soil, keep them moist, but not saturated, and in indirect sun for around two weeks.  When your new cuttings first sprout, it will be only time that these hard plants are vulnerable, so try to keep them on a start table to reduce pests.

    Once established, these plants will continue to produce medicinal leaves and grow more roots, allowing you to easily and exponentially grow your comfrey supply.

    Once you have a hearty supply of comfrey in your garden, turning it into useful medicine for treating burns, bruises, sprangs, and broken bones is just as easy as growing it.

    First, harvest the leaves. Consider leaving at least 20% of each plants leaves intact will help speed regrowth, but if necessary comfrey can recover from being run down with a lawn mower so don’t worry too much.

    Then puree, the leaves in a blender that you don’t use for food-or at least one that you will clean thoroughly before using again for food, since comfrey does contain hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids which can cause liver damage if ingested.

    If no blender is available, the leaves can be finely chopped and beaten to a juicy pulp.  The puree or pulp can then be placed directly on the wound site and wrapped with plastic wrap or cellophane, which would in turn be wrapped in an ace bandage to keep it in place.  This can be left in place over night and changed out in the morning.

    This isn’t all this plant has to over though, so check back soon for more information on how, among other things, comfrey can increase food production and help with weed control.

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