Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[yarrow@sfo.com]

Title: Re: [Livingontheland] calendula

Calendula grows like a weed at my community garden! I let the plants grow where they seed themselves; occasionally I move a plant (best to transplant it while it's small, less than 3-4 inches high) if necessary. It blooms all year, so I especially encourage them in the winter. I've grown calendula with little or no irrigation (in many plants, this concentrates the medicinal qualities), but it really thrives in good soil with some water.

Usually, the varieties with the most medicinal qualities are the ones closest to the original species. When plants are hybridized and bred for different colors, often the medicinal qualities are weakened. For calendula, the yellow and orange varieties will probably be the best. I planted one seedling of a pink calendula this spring, and it finally had one flower in November; by contrast, the wild calendulas have a dozen flowers at a time and flower nonstop all year round. I've also learned enough herbs to realize that the ones I'm most likely to need are the ones most likely to be growing nearby, so if for some reason calendula is not easy to grow, look around and see what does grow easily.

The medicinal part is the ray flowers (the long yellow or orange petals). The PDR for Herbal Medicines does list a few minor active constituents if all above-ground parts are used, but the most potent part is the ray flowers. Since this plant flowers so freely, I wouldn't use the stems. I pick the flowers just after they open, dry them as whole flower heads, then pick the petals off after they are dry (makes me sneeze!). You can prepare it as a water extract (infusion), alcohol extract (tincture), or oil/alcohol extract (ointment). Use infusions within a day, ointments within a couple years or so (depending on the ingredients). Tinctures last for years.

Basically, calendula speeds healing of skin, so it's a great addition to lip balms and general healing  ointments. It's also used in formulas as an immune stimulant.

The following  more technical info comes from Michael Moore, with whom I studied botanical  medicine, and who had his herbal manuals available online at http://www.swsbm.com/ the last time I checked.

 If  you are using fresh flowers, use 1 part flowers to 2 parts alcohol (140 proof or 70 percent) by volume. With dry flowers, use 1 part flowers to 5 parts alcohol.  For  use directly on skin (that is, topically), dilute the prepared  tincture with water.

He lists these specific uses:

  Vasoneurosis of skin and mucosa.
  Abscess, acute, local (topically).
  Abscess, to stimulate granulation (topically).
  Decubitus, simple, uncomplicated (externally).
  Fissures, general orificial (external).
  Herpes simplex, with secondary bacterial infection.
  Skin ulcers, in general (external).
  Suppuration without pyogenic membrane, shallow (external).

How to prepare herbs

FRESH PLANT TINCTURE

One part by weight of the fresh, chopped herb is steeped for 7-10 days in

two parts by volume of alcohol (140 proof or 70% ethanol), and

pressed or squeezed out.  There is no reason to blend or shake this
maceration; the tincture is formed passively as a result of dehydration. 
Ethanol draws out all plant constituents that contain water, leaving only
cellulose and dead tissue behind.

DRY PLANT TINCTURE: Maceration.

  If the Materia Medica calls for a [1:5, 70% alcohol] tincture, it means

this:  your solvent is 70% alcohol and 30% water (the water is presumed),

and one part of herb by weight has been invested in five parts of solvent

by volume.  Let me run you through one.  You have four ounces of dried herb.

The four ounces (1 part) must be mixed with 20 ounces of solvent

(5 parts).  If the alcohol you have is greater than 140 proof (70 percent), add water to

make it 70 percent alcohol. Shake the mixture up for a couple of minutes twice a day.

After 10-14 days of this, let it set another day, pour off the clear tincture

from the top, and squeeze as much out of the sediment as your press or wrists  allow.

(In the field, we did not weigh herbs. Instead, we packed a jar of the appropriate size with the fresh herb and covered it with alcohol, making sure all of the herb was below the surface of the liquid to prevent mold growth. I spent lots of time in chem labs in college, and though it's possible to be chem-lab-precise when making herbal preparations, in my experience it's not absolutely essential. The most important factors are to make sure the alcohol content is adequate and the herbs are correctly identified and ethically collected from a clean site.)

(It's also possible to make a tincture in a day with an advanced technique called percolation.)

all-purpose salve

  4 ounces Calendula Flowers (Moore likes to use half calendula and half arnica flowers)

  2 ounces ethanol
  24 ounces Olive Oil
  6 ounce Hypericum Oil
  1/2 ounce Cajeput Oil
  5 ounces Beeswax

Make a 1:6 steeped oil with the Calendula (soak flowers in ethanol, then add oil,

let steep, and squeeze out flowers), add the Hypericum Oil (made from the

 fresh flowers), heat slowly, dissolve the beeswax, add the Cajeput (actually

Tea Tree Oil, but much cheaper by the older name), and pour into tins.

(For simplicity's sake, you can leave out the hypericum

 and use only 4 oz. beeswax, but the tea tree oil helps

 the salve last longer. I store my salves in the refrigerator.)

After Michael Moore, my next-favorite practical herbalist is Kathy Keville, who has several herb books.

At 2:02 PM -0800 12/30/06, Carrie Shepard wrote:

Calendula is a plant I want to grow more of this year and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me more about the many varieties available?

 

I'm wondering specifically if there is any great difference between the varieties for medicinal purposes?   Last year we grew some and my daughter made an oil and soap with the petals, but I read somewhere that it works to tincture the stems in vodka/gin/rum alcohol as well for anti-fungal or anti-viral properties.