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Oil macerates

Yarrow oil macerate

Its leaf, cut like lace, looks like a word of forgetting. Folk medicine, which named it “the soldier's plant”, credits it with stopping blood.

The flowering tops of Achillea millefolium, listed in the European Pharmacopoeia (Millefolii herba), hold sesquiterpenes (achilleine, chamazulene), flavonoids and a bluish essential oil. The oil macerate concentrates the fat-soluble compounds; it is traditionally used on blemish-prone skin, bruises and small cuts that have already closed.

Ingredients

Equipment

  • •1 clear glass jar
  • •1 muslin or fine fabric
  • •1 tinted glass bottle for storage

Steps

  1. 1

    Dry the tops

    If the tops are fresh, spread them on a clean cloth in the shade for 24 to 48 h. Residual water in the oil would encourage mould. You can also use dried tops of the year.

    24 to 48 h

  2. 2

    Pack into the jar

    Roughly chop the tops if they are large, then pack them into the jar without crushing, up to 3/4 of the height. Pour the oil slowly, chasing out the air bubbles with a wooden stick. Leave 1 cm of space at the top.

    5 min

  3. 3

    Expose to the sun (solar method)

    Place the jar on a sunny windowsill for 3 to 4 weeks. Shake each day. The oil will take on a greenish to golden hue. Winter variant: failing sun, place in a warm spot (on top of the fridge, near a warm radiator) for 6 weeks.

    3 to 4 weeks

  4. 4

    Strain

    Strain through a muslin, pressing gently. Let it settle for 24 h, then decant into a tinted bottle, leaving the deposit at the bottom.

    30 min + 24 h

Storage

1 year, cool and away from light. The oil may set slightly in the cold, normal, it becomes liquid again at room temperature.

How to use it

EXTERNAL USE ONLY. Gently massaged onto bruises, areas of muscle tension, old scars. As a facial care for blemish-prone skin (1-2 drops in the evening). Can serve as a base for a balm with beeswax (10 g of wax per 100 ml of oil).

Health properties

  • Chamazulene and sesquiterpenes, compounds also present in blue chamomile
  • A traditional haemostatic (age-old use to stop superficial bleeding)
  • Traditionally reputed astringent, used for combination skin
  • A gentle traditional wound-healer for small already-closed cuts

These preparations belong to cooking and herbal tradition: they nourish and support, do not “cure” anything and replace no treatment. Ask a doctor or pharmacist before prolonged use, if under treatment, pregnant or breastfeeding, or for a child. Follow the stated storage precautions strictly.

Precautions

External use only. Possible allergy to the Asteraceae (daisy family), do a test in the crook of the elbow 24 h before the first application on a large area. Not advised during pregnancy (yarrow at high doses is uterotonic, even in prolonged skin application). Do not apply on open or infected wounds without medical advice. Avoid direct sun exposure just after application (slight photosensitivity possible).

Sources & tradition

  • · European Pharmacopoeia, Millefolii herba
  • · ESCOP Monographs, Yarrow
  • · Maurice Mességué, Mon herbier de santé
  • · Cazin, Traité pratique des plantes médicinales indigènes (1868)

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