Natural health care has become popular with people who are tired of pharmaceuticals that provide little relief and cost too much. Although there are natural health products in many organic and health food stores, people who are really interested in these products can learn how to make their own. To start, here is a DIY recipe for a salve that you can use for rashes and sunburn.

Comfrey, the Natural Soother 

Before drug store shelves and pharmacies provided petroleum-laden products and promoted them as soothing ointments, there was comfrey. Comfrey is a plant that typically grows wild, but has been cultivated to grow in gardens. Its leaves, when boiled down, produce an oil that is similar to aloe in that it can banish dry, itchy skin and some types of rash, as well as provide comfort and speed the healing of burns

To make your own comfrey, salve you will need:

  • one ounce of comfrey leaves, ground and dried
  • one quarter-pound of honeycomb, with wax and honey (the honey also contains a soothing element that boosts the properties of the comfrey)
  • one cup of organic, coldpressed olive oil
  • glass baking dish
  • tins or jars to pour the salve into
  • cheesecloth to strain the salve of excess oil

Most salves require cold-pressed virgin olive oil, but if you do not like the smell you can use almond oil or grapeseed oil, which add a light natural scent to the salve without overpowering it.

Cooking the Salve

  1. The oil and the comfrey go into the baking dish.
  2. The dish goes into the oven and bakes at two hundred degrees for three hours. The comfrey binds with the oil, and the water in the oil dissipates, leaving a very thick liquid behind.
  3. While you wait for the oil and comfrey to finish cooking, grind up the honeycomb with its own beeswax and honey.
  4. Put the ground honeycomb, honey and wax into a double boiler on the stove.
  5. When the comfrey oil comes out of the oven, immediately strain it through the cheesecloth into the double boiler with the beeswax, honey and honeycomb.
  6. Set the entire mixture to cook on medium low, stirring regularly to keep it from burning.
  7. Once it is well-blended, remove it from the stove and pour it into your jars or tins and let it cool.

Voila! You just made a batch of multi-purpose healing salve with comfrey as the main ingredient! There are many more DIY recipes available for all kinds of salves, and now that you know how to make one, you can experiment and try making many more. You can also find more recipes online at places like Living It Out.

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