• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

2. Prepare custom menstruum.

3. Cover the herb with menstruum and blend it like making a smoothie. (You will have to use enough of the menstruum to cover the blender blades. Use as much of the measured menstruum as you can to make the mixture churn actively in the blender. You may not be able to use all the menstruum in this blending stage.)

4. Pour the liquefied ingredients into a jar and cap tightly. Be sure you have added all the measured menstruum to the herb during or after the blending process, so as to maintain the intended weight to volume proportion.

5. Shake the glycerite frequently for 14 days.

6. Decant, press, and filter.

7. Bottle, tightly cap, and label.

* It is important to clean and wipe off the rim of the jar thoroughly before placing the lid on and tightening it down. After wiping the rim it is even advisable to place a piece of waxed paper between the rim and the lid as a gasket. This assures that you will have a tight seal preventing the loss of any menstruum that can occur due to constant shaking of the liquid contents. You will know if there has been any leakage by the discovery of narrow streams of extract appearing on the outside surface of the jar.

**From Advanced Treatise on Herbology

Oil infusions are an infusion of medicinal or culinary herbs in a fixed oil menstruum. Medicinal oil infusions, when applied to the skin, form a protective covering and are used to hold other therapeutic or cosmetic agents to the skin, facilitating the absorption of the herbal remedies. Oil infusions prepared for use as food carry the nutrients, flavor, and aroma of culinary herbs to the gourmet tongue, greatly enhancing the nutritional and aesthetic pleasures of the herbalist’s cuisine.

Many fixed oils in themselves are well utilized as foods and as medicines. Medically, these oils are very soothing substances, and therapeutically they are most useful because of their ability to soften the keratin layer of the skin. This renders the skin pliable and tends to prevent cracking of the skin’s surface.

Fixed oils are obtained from both the vegetable and the animal kingdom. They are often called fatty oils, as they are chemically the same as fats. They are more or less unctuous (smooth and greasy) to the touch, and in a liquid condition and dropped on paper, leave a permanent oily spot. Individual oils vary greatly in their point of congelation: Olive oil becomes solid at a little above 32° F., whereas Flaxseed oil can remain fluid at 4° F. below zero. Pure fixed oils have little taste or smell. They are lighter than water and they do not evaporate easily; however, they do boil at about 600° F. and are converted into vapor at this temperature. Heated in open air, especially with the aid of a wick, fixed oils do take fire and burn with a bright and sooty flame generating much heat. These oils are quite soluble with volatile oils, but are insoluble in water. However, they are capable of being mixed (miscible) with water by the assistance of an emulsifier, forming mixtures which are called emulsions (see “Lotions & Creams,” Chapter Nineteen). Fixed oils comprise most of the oils in common use, such as Olive, Almond, Sesame, Cod liver, and Castor oil (and mineral oils). They are well used as menstrua in warm to hot infusions and decoctions to abstract resins, oleoresins, and essential oils.

Some oils, such as Castor bean oil and Flaxseed (Linseed) oil, form fatty acids which act as drugs when decomposed in the intestines. These unsaturated fatty acids are slightly irritant to the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal, and as the oils decompose (hydrolyze) in the intestines, they can render a laxative effect. This can be a mild cathartic action, as when using Flaxseed oil, or it can be rather intense, as when using Castor oil. Castor oil also differs from the other oils in that it contains hydroxy fatty acids and, therefore, has slightly different solubility properties. It is soluble to a fair extent in cold 95 percent absolute alcohol, while the other oils are