This post is my contribution to this week's discussion in The Herbal Hive community.
Maceration is a process of extraction into oil. We usually extract plants like herbs, flowers, spices and even fruits and vegetables, for medicinal purposes. We use quality oil which acts as a solvent for the extraction of the compounds.
Before the extraction of a certain plant material we need to learn well about it. This is important because some of the plants are so potent that we need a good knowledge of the dosages before using them. The extract should be kept with responsibility, always keep them in a safe place not reachable for children and pets. Because there's oil in these extractions especially dogs tend to eat them and that might be very harmful to them!
So… not all of the macerates can be used externally, some of them could only be used for skin care (for example Saint John's wort is way too strong of a medicine to use internally as it could harm our body).
We also need to know where the material came from, as we would like to use only plant material that we foraged in the clean nature or that was ecologically produced.
Other info that we need to gather is how a certain extracted compound could interact with our life and habits. For example, some might interact with the sun, drugs and medications and lead to the negative consequences to our body.
We can make an extraction of oil in two ways: one is at room temperature on a sunny spot and the other one is heating up to 60°C (in a double boiler).
Today I'm talking about my maceration project. I made two different bottles that will be extracted in the next month. One of them is rose petal macerate and the other mixed herbs. Both of them are edible. I picked the petals of the wild rose and the herbs and spices I've picked in the garden. The cumin that I added was bought in a spice shop. I didn't use rose leaves, but those could be also used in a macerate. I used dry herbs because macerate tends to spoil faster if it contains water.
I've decided not to use the process of heating up, instead I combined dry material with extra virgin olive oil and placed it in a sunny spot. Usually the macerates are left in a warm and sunny spot for 40-45 days. I did that a week ago and that means the rose petals will be extracted in about a month, I only shake it now and then. The oil has already started changing color and it looks like the extraction process is good.
When extracted, I will filter it using a cheesecloth. After that I will keep it in a dark and cold place.
Medicinal properties of roses:
- Antibacterial and antiseptic
- Helps with mental and emotional stability
- Supports women hormones
- Helps with period cramps
- Banaces the mood during period
- Anti-aging
- Helps with dry or rough skin
- Heals wounds, scars and burns
Rose macerate is mostly popular to use in skincare as massage oil, in body lotions, and face creams. Rose oil could also be used in culinary as it's safe to use internally (that is not with rose essential oil! Those are way stronger and they should not be used internally!)
Mostly I use rose oil as a massage oil on my stomach when having period cramps. In culinary I usually use it in cake or cookie batter.
Mixed herbs macerate ingredients:
- Chills
- Cumin
- Wild oregano flowers and leaves
- Rosemary
- Bay leaves
- Mustard seed
- Black pepper
- Red pepper
- Dill
- Coriander
- Fennel
