Today we want to share with you one of the recipes we use often, How to Make Plantain Infused Oil. No, this is NOT the banana kind. This is a little green plant, a herb, considered by many to be a weed.
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As you know we are always looking for new ways to be more self-sufficient. We did a series of talks on How to start a more self-sufficient lifestyle. If you have read some of our other talks, you know we DIY many of our own health and beauty products.
Wow, doesn’t that sound big and bad and hard? Well, it is not. Making your own health and beauty products is very simple and can be fun.
In this talk, we want to give you a basic recipe for How to Make Plantain Infused Oil. The process is simple and straightforward.
For those who do not know what a Plantain is, it is probably one of those “weeds” that you pull out of your yard. Again, not the banana kind. Plantain is a common, native plant. There are many different varieties of Plantain and they are put in the weed category because people do not know what they really are.
Fun fact: many “weeds” that you pull out of your garden are medical plants.
Plantain is a very misunderstood plant. It is in fact one of many volunteer medical plants that live around you. Plantain is great for healing wounds, it has natural antibacterial properties and is even better when combined with like minded medical plants. We are by no means experts on Plantain so we will not try to bore you with the science facts that go along with Plantain and its’ amazing benefits. But we can tell you, we use it in several different forms and we love it.
Here on the farm, Plantain grows wild so we do not have to get ours from anywhere. If you do not have Plantain growing in your area, you can buy Plantain products from most Herbal shops.
You may want to find some plants and grow them for yourself. As we have done before, you can transplant Plantain plants and grow them in pots. They will reseed themselves if you give them time.
Our Plantain died down in the winter and we were afraid it was dead but no, it came back in the spring with triple the plants we had put into the pot originally.
Anyway, whatever way you get your plant material, grown, foraged, or bought you can make great things with Plantain.
So on to How to Make Plantain Infused Oil.
First, you will need Plantain leaves. As we said, we have them growing wild so we just go outside and pick some. It is best to pick a couple of leaves from each plant that way you do not injure the plant and it can continue to grow.
The process for Making Plantain Infused Oil is just like other talks we have done on making infused oils, no matter the plant, the process is similar.
There is more than one way to get an infused oil, actually three that we can think of off the top of our heads. There is the crock pot method, the blender method, and the sunny window method. All three ways have both benefits and drawbacks. But for this talk, we are using the sunny window method.
1. Crush, chop, bruise, or blend the Plantain leaves.
Some say you can use the whole plant but we do not. We leave the plant to grow more leaves for us to use later.
Sustainability is important. If you take the whole plant or all of the leaves at once you kill the plant. Then you will have nothing if you need it again later. Taking care not to injure the plant itself is a good practice. You take care of the plant and it can take care of you.
2. Put the Plantain leaves into a glass jar.
It would seem obvious but just in case, use a clean jar.
3. Fill the jar with your carrier oil.
For our Plantain Infused Oil, we use olive oil.
Now here there is some debate on which carrier oil is best. So far, no one has been convincing as to which one is best.
In making our infused oils, we choose the carrier oil depending on what our end product will be. Olive oil is a bit heavy for many beauty products but it works great for salves and ointments. Not saying you can not use olive oil, if that is all you have on hand, use it. We prefer grape seed oil or almond oil for more of our beauty products as they are lightweight oils and do not generally cause acne breakouts in teens.
4. Sit your jar in a sunny window for 6 to 8 weeks.
5. Give the jar a gentle shake daily.
This will help the Plantain “leach” out into the oil.
6. Strain and keep the liquid.
The leftovers make a great poultice but leftovers we do not need will go into the mulch bucket.
Now you know How to Make Plantain Infused Oil.
Again, there are several ways you can go about making your infused oil. This method, the sunny window way, takes the longest but has the least amount of work involved.
We have not used the blender method but basically, you put your plant material in a blender to chop it small, and then add it to the carrier oil. This method only takes a few days to a week, then you strain it and keep the infused oil.
The third method, the crock pot method we have used and explained in detail and in pictures in our talk Homemade Cayenne Pepper Infused Oil. This is the fast method as described in that talk.
Yes, the plant material is different but the method of infusing the oil is the same. We imagine some people use a combination of these methods.
This oil can be used by itself or used as an ingredient in other herbal concoctions. There have been times when we just rubbed the Plantain Infused Oil onto our skin by itself. The results are good but if you combine the Plantain Oil with other herbs and spices, you can get a great product.
Plantain Infused Oil can be used in salves, ointments, balms, and more. As we have already stated, Plantain has antibacterial properties and it is very soothing to the skin.
Of course, the Plantain Infused Oil is for external use only, do not drink it. Not sure what would happen there but you would at least have intestinal issues due to the amount of oil you took in.
If you do not know what a poultice is, as we mentioned above, it is simply taking the leaves, smashing them, and using them directly on a wound. In an emergency, this is a good way to cover a wound and keep it from getting infected. We have used this one or twice when we did not have access to infused oil or time to make one.
Here on the farm, we have odd accidents from time to time. Once one of us stepped on what can only be described as a naturally occurring caltrop. For those of you who know what that is, you will wince. For those who do not know what a caltrop is, it is a medieval torture device. They look like metal jacks, yes the game, but they are twisted and sharp on all ends. These used to be spread on the road to stop horses or foot soldiers. Needless to say, it is a nasty thing.
Well, one of our smart family members went out in crocks, not real shoes. Now, do not get us wrong, we love crocks but they are not farming shoes. The “caltrop” went right through the crock and into the foot. It was in fact a twisted u nail but the principle is the same.
Quickly, we made a poultice of plantain leaves and a few drops of Comfrey essential oil. We foraged a couple of the Plantain leaves, mashed them up, and mixed them with the Comfrey oil. Then we put the poultice directly onto the injury and bandaged it.
Now normally people start screaming about Tetanus shots and flushing out the wound tract and stuff like that. But we did not do any of that. Just the Plantain and Comfrey poultice. And it worked just fine. The injury did not get infected and healed up in a few days.
We are, of course, not saying you should not see a doctor, flush the wound, or get a Tetanus shot, just that we did not in this case.
Also, we are not suggesting you just slap a leaf on an injury and forget about it. The injury needs cleaning and tending. But in a tight, a Plantain leaf poultice will keep til you can get more attention.
As we have said before and it is on our Disclaimer page, we are not doctors, lawyers, vets, or herbalists. We can only share the methods we have used and the experiences that we have had. So do keep that in mind. You may not get the exact results that we did. This information is not intended to replace needed medical treatments or a visit to the doctor if you need to.
And we sincerely hope you never step on a caltrop.
So we hope you have enjoyed this talk on How to Make Infused Plantain Oil. If you are interested in herbal concoctions and making your own, Plantain is a good one to start with.
If you are interested in similar recipes please check out these below.
Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.
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