St. John's Wort Oil

 Morning Pam,

The shelf life when in olive oil, which has a long shelf life itself, if airtight and 
kept in a cupboard out of light is years. I'm still using a bottle of it that I made 2 
years ago.

The recipe is not exact measurements, but proportions of. Ingredients are chopped if 
fresh, crumbled if dry.

* 2/3's St Johnswort flowers & leaves of top 4"
* 1/3 Feverfew flowers & leaves
* 2 small Mullein leaves
* 2 big pinches of dry Chamomile flowers.

Cover herbs until submerged with olive oil, gently heat without allowing it to simmer. 
If necessary, turn flame off and let oil cool a bit, turn heat on.

Again...repeat this to keep the oil warm for an hour. Let oil cool, strain out herbs, 
add 10 drops of Lavender EO to each 1 cup of oil. Store in and air tight bottle or jar,
and keep out of light (oil will be a red brown from the herb combination).

Cathie
CA zone 8a

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Melana, you are so lucky to have tons of St. John's...  I suggest infusing some  in 
olive oil and tincturing what's left.  The infused oil can be used for: massage for 
sciatic pain or any nerve pain in a large body area (pinched nerve in the back); 
incorporating into a combination salve with plantain and/or marigold for skin ailments 
from chapped skin to eczema; mixing a little with your mullein or chamomile oil for 
earache. The tincture is effective for depression, but even if you don't suffer from 
that, it's good to have because it's effective for nerve pain (fingertip caught in a 
drawer, stubbed toe, sciatica - I use St. John's orally and topically for that). Need 
instructions for making the preparations? I can post them to the list, if you want. 
However, most of the modern herbals carry detailed instructions: David Hoffman, Rosemary
Gladstar, Susun Weed, Penelope Ody are the first author's names that come to mind.

For herbal education and lots of fun, search for Henriette Kress's Herbal
Homepage, the best on the Net.

Regards,

Miriam