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
It's so pretty to look at, I think I might have lost a few minutes just tripping on it... Lately I was thinking about replacing the spliffs with edibles, so macerating my "shit" would be perfect (I know it sounds weird haha).
That's just perfect!
I'm of course extracting decarbed buds in oil and that works great!
Cool
I loved it... Taking note to prepare it.
I'm glad 😌
I like the last one, as I can imagine how good this will be on a wild salad! I need to try this one. Thanks for sharing! I have actually never tried it before. All the possibilities!
Rose oil has an interesting taste depends on what kind of roses you use. Some of them are very bitter and some are semi-sweet, but you can figure it out by eating some petals. Some people even cut off the lower part of the petal which is bitter.
So many possibilities here! I got 'obssest' with what else I cloud extract in oils.
Thank you so much for the tip! I will taste the rose petals. I have some roses growing wild here and they might taste good.
And yes, it is almost like a blank canvas you can use to color in any shape and form!
Yes you can go totally crazy with them 😅
Cool! Even if you don't like the taste of it you can still use it as a massage oil. Roses are great for the skincare and regeneration or pain. The massage oil also seem kind of a romantic idea...
Totally! The scent of roses and other "softer" herbs (if that makes sense) will be perfect for the romance! Maybe that is even a better idea to use them. Thanks for the brilliant idea!
The roses are relaxing to us and they are good for our skin. It relaxes muscles and regenerates skin, so I think it's perfect for daily use as a massage oil.
It certainly does sound good, and I love the smell of roses so win-win 😀
Thank you for this wonderful post on Maceration, you covered many topics here and both oils look amazing (good enough to eat, the colour of the rose oil is divine). I have made a few in the past, but never really mixed them with different herbs. I will certainly be trying this out. xxx
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I make a few oil extractions every year but usually for skincare, the last year I started to about oil extractions that could be edible. I tried to make a small amount of chills and rosemary and I loved it! This year I thought to go a little bit crazy with introducing more herbs to it. I'm really curious how it will taste like- I'm already counting days off the calendar!
How wonderful! These would make fantastic Christmas gifts. Sorry I took so long to get to this - been struggling to keep up on hive! We've been drying rose petals for all kinds of herbal goodies - the oil looks ammaaazing. @riverflows xx
Some of those will sure be gifed in Christmas! Especially I like to make creams and bath salt infused with rose oil, for presents. I have to keep in mind to report on those when I'll be making them.
You're been doing an amazing job on the communities and we also need life off the internet!
I really appreciate your hard work and the thoughtfulness of posts/challenges! 💚🙏
That last shot of the rose bottle was lovely. I wasn't very familiar with macerates so this was an interesting post to read.
Thank you 😊
I'm still introducing myself to the edible kinds. I will make some massage oils which are for muscle and joint paint but not for eating. I will for sure post about them too.
Cool! I'll be watching for them.
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