Tag: Thyme

How to Make Your Own Essential Oils

Essential oils are useful for a variety of purposes. They can be used for medicinal reasons or healing of the mind, for example. Most people buy their oils in small bottles ready to be used. However, you can sometimes make your own essential oils.

Sweet almond oil can be used as a base for essential oils. It is best if combined with vitamin E, because this is a natural preservative. To make a small amount of essential oil, use one half cup of the sweet almond oil with vitamin E.

Choose the type of essential oil you want to make. This will usually depend upon what plant materials you have at hand. If you have a rose garden, you might want to make rose oil. With an herb garden, you could make oil of thyme or oil of oregano. If you are making essential oils in winter, you could use citrus peels, such as lemon or grapefruit. To get started making essential oils, take your plant material and put it in plastic bag. Start with a cup of tightly packed flowers. Or, use a quarter cup of packed herbs or chopped fruit peel. Close the bag.

Tap the bag with a hammer or a kitchen mallet to slightly bruise the material. Do this gently so as not to turn your plant matter into mush. You want the oils of the plant substance to be brought out ever so slightly. This is the basis for your essential oils.

Next, it’s time to put the contents of the bag in a wide mouthed jar with the sweet almond oil. Put a top on the jar and shake it gently until all the ingredients are mixed thoroughly. Make sure the plant matter is saturated. The essential oil will start to form. It takes some time for the essential oils to be extracted from the plant material in this manner. So, leave your jar in a warm place for the rest of the day. This will give the natural oils time to permeate the sweet almond oil.

On the second day, put some cheesecloth over the mouth of a second wide mouthed jar and pour the mixture from the first jar through it and into the second jar. At this point, you don’t need the first batch of plant matter you gathered. Throw it away along with the cheesecloth.

For the next three days, repeat the same procedure, using another cup of flowers or a quarter cup of fresh herbs or chopped fruit. Always strain the mixture from the previous day through cheesecloth into a clean jar. This will assure that your essential oils are pure.

When all these steps are completed, you have made your essential oil. You only need to bottle it and it will be good for six to twelve months whenever you need it. To bottle it, strain it through cheesecloth a final time. Then pour it through a funnel into small, dark bottles. Close the tops with stoppers.

If you do any flower or herb gardening at all, you might be surprised at how many different essential oils you can make. You can put them together from ingredients in your own back yard.

Sore Throat Home Remedies

Sore throats in themselves are not usually serious and so going off to the doctor for a cure might not be useful or a great use of resources. Not surprising then that sore throat home remedies are usually used and are very effective.

First of all though, it is often worthwhile looking at what is going on when a sore throat develops. There are usually two main reasons for sore throats: colds and flus being one and the other being strep throat. There are a variety of other reasons for sore throats, but the most common are the two listed.

A lot of sore throat home remedies are based around keeping the body well hydrated by either drinking home made herbal teas and infusions or simply drinking plenty of water and natural juices. Not only are all of these readily available but the drinking of liquids, particularly warm liquids, also helps to sooth the throat and keep the throat well lubricated.

A raspberry leaf tea is particularly versatile because not only can it be boiled and strained and drunk, but it can also be used as a gargle wash for the sore throat. Other teas that help to sooth a sore throat are chamomile, thyme and sage and even a garlic infusion sweetened with a little honey has proved a good way to help those who have a sore throat.

However, a classic amongst the sore throat home remedies has to be the steaming method. Used throughout generations, this method involves filling a bowl with hot water, adding a few drops of a decongestant such as eucalyptus oils and then placing a towel over the head and breathing in the infusion. This helps by opening up the nasal passages and loosens any infection that might be affecting the throat.

Lemon and honey are also one of the great sore throat home remedies. The two ingredients together can act as a tea to stop dryness in the throat and they also work well together to sooth a scratchy and inflamed throat.

One sore throat home remedies for those with a sweet tooth that is going to be great news, is the eating of hard candy. The sugar in the candy is a great source of keeping the throat soothed added to that, the action of sucking on hard candy means the mouth is producing saliva which will naturally stop the dryness that is often associated with sore throats.

Above all though, home remedies for a sore throat should start with a gargle, the drinking of plenty of liquids, particularly warm liquids and the taking of plenty of rest and relaxation.