Arthritis Salve

Intro to Salve Making

To understand how to make a salve the way we do; there are a few things you must know first.

You'll be glad you did!

Lets dive right in!

Appropriate sized Crock 

Any bigger and you will have problems

Start by purchasing a slow-cooker, as this is the best cooking vessel to control temperature. This slow-cooker will be absolutely dedicated to making salves as it will severely alter the flavour of food. The slow-cooker should be small to medium size because the middle will not heat, and it will not be cooked evenly and lots will end up wasted.

volatile plant oil extracts (AKA essential oils)

Oil extract (salve)

Hyrdo/Water extract (tea) 

The medicinal qualities of all plants are found in the oils, often referred to as volatile oils. Tea for example is steeping the plant in water so the oils are released and then drinking the water and oils together. Ultimately you are just making the tea to drink the medicinal qualities of the plants, the oils.

Melting Coconut oil in a crock

As far as I know, coconut oil is the best!

 When you make a salve you are essentially doing the same thing as making tea, but instead of water you are using a base oil. I personally prefer coconut oil as a base above all other oils. Your base oil is 'empty' and your job is to 'fill' it will all the oils from your chosen plants. Lets learn how this is done!

When you heat the plants in the base oil, the medicinal oil goes from the plant into the base oil. If you heat it too much the plant oils will evaporate and go into the air which is the most horrible thing that can happen to anyone making a salve. What makes or breaks a salve is the temperature, you must be very watchful as high temperatures can weaken. This is why we arrange the plant ingredients in order of volatility, saving the most volatile for last.

In regards to volatility, each plant is different, some are extremely volatile like mints which yield their oils extremely easily. Some mints will loose 100% of their medicinal oils just upon drying. On the opposite end of the spectrum we have barks and roots. These ingredients need to be cooked at slightly higher temperatures, for longer periods of time.

Thick, bulky willow that has almost no smell

Thin mint leaves that smell fantastic!

Hardy Willow Bark is one of the first ingredients which has to be almost simmered for 2 hours, whereas delicate mint leaves on the other hand only need to be placed in the warm-to-touch oil for a few minutes.

Never use dry ingredients, the moisture is needed to force the medicinal oil out and into the base oil.

My definition of a load:

I will refer to a 'load' quite often and here is what I am referring to. After you have harvested a plant, you must take the part of it that you are going to use for cooking and collect enough of it to make up a 'load'. Basically this is usually just filling the slow cooker up with as much of the plant as possible but there are exceptions.

Properly shaved Willow bark 

For barks you must shave-fluff the bark, however, if the tree is sapping and breaks off in chunks it is too late (early spring) and in order to do it absolutely perfect (which is not always necessary) you have to wait until the next year. Shaving is where you take the blade of the knife and scrape it along the bark. It will 'fluff' out at the end of the knife, this is shave-fluff. It needs to be in shaving-fluff because you are able to pack more of the bark in and you are able to strain absolutely everything out, this is very important. With all other ingredients they are pounded, blended and completely macerated into a unrecognisable pulp, for the same reason. This pulp is placed in the oil until there is so much of it that excess plant matter is not immersed on the surface. This is one load.

Wipe off all condensing water droplets

Cooking instructions are different for each ingredient. When cooking you must constantly wipe off the condensing water droplets on top of the lid as water is what rots a salve regardless of the medicinal qualities of the ingredients. It also causes overflow because the water will sink and push the oil to overflow.

Straining:

Proper straining is absolutely essential, this is one of the most important steps that needs very special attention. In the canning section of all grocery or department stores you will be able to find jelly bags, these are necessary for an efficient strain. When the ingredient is fully steeped and it has cooled off enough for your hands to handle, fill the jelly bag slightly. Then you wring it out like a wet towel, remember that it is best to wring it out as hot as possible, because the oil is more viscus.

The best medicine is still locked inside the plant, you must wring out not only the base oil but also what is left from the plants own oil. This is what makes the salves potency different than all other traditionally cooked salves. If you have any input in this regard it would be much appreciated, although I have tried a large variety of different methods and this is what works best for me.

Lets get started...

Arthritis Salve

Willow is everywhere!

The first ingredient I usually begin with are the willows and I usually start with bebbs willow. I recommend four loads of bebbs willow and four loads of red osier dogwood. These ingredients need to be slightly simmered for two hours. A slight simmer is where the edges of the slow-cooker are barely bubbling and the middle develops a type of foam. Stir constantly but keep the lid on whenever your not stirring. Let it cool slightly then strain until all willow pulp is removed.

Red osier dogwood

These willows relieve pain and inflammation like no other plant. True willows contains salicin, red osier does not as it is not a true willow. This means we are attacking pain and inflammation two different ways, with and without salicin.

Next is one load of Tamarack bark which again you slightly simmered for two hours. This will bring heat to the applied area which attracts healing. It also regenerate and stimulate nerve repair.

Cedar leaf before complete maceration 

Next is five to ten loads of cedar depending on how many additional plants you plan on adding as the oil will fill up. The leaves need to be pounded to a pulp and simmered for one to two hours depending on how fine the pulp. Cedar is what does most of the healing. Antibacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral, anti-parasitic, antiseptic, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, sheds excess bone, repairs damaged ligaments and joints, increases bone density... This plant is the star of the salve.

Crystallized spruce resin

Non crystallized spruce resin (best smell ever)

Lastly is your resins as they are the thickest and stickiest. Spruce resin and Balsam Poplar buds need to be harvested from naturally formed resins. The amount of resin is dependant on the size of the salve, but for small-medium size slow cookers I recommend putting two handfuls of crystallized and non crystallized resin in. Fill the slow cooker with about 1/4 poplar buds as the olioresins are thick and it goes a long way.

This is my favourite part of making the salve. As the poplar buds cook they blossom just like a flower to release their inner resin and then the empty blossoms float to the top of the oil. If you put too many buds in they will over flow once they begin to rise to the top so be careful. Finally the spruce resin melts right into the oil and mixes beautifully.

Once it is strained pour it into your favourite jars and enjoy the soothing and healing effects this salve has on arthritis.

I recommend small jars, 60mL or less

Making a salve is a huge commitment as it needs constant attention and can take a while to finish as life gets busy. It is okay to turn off a salve and leave it alone if you get busy and then return to it again when things slow down, it won't go bad.

This is just one example of a salve recipe but there are many other plants that can be added for different desired medicinal qualities especially during the summer months when plant life is in full swing. This arthritis salve can be made all year round however the poplar buds must be harvested in early spring around late March and April depending on your region.

This is going to be a living-blog. Meaning I will be updating this regularly with my own photos and videos and more text so you have a very clear understanding on how to make this incredible arthritis healing salve.

Happy salve making!

Willow

How do you interpret what willow is made to heal?

Willow is a beautiful and very delicate looking tree. Long slender leaves on thin and extremely flexible stems are its most notable features. Willow usually grows in poor, wet soils almost always lining a water source. Willow roots are notorious for reaching as far as 40 feet and bursting into public water mains to get at the water!

The beautiful arctic blue leaved willow 

My favorite feature of this plant are its beautiful stems that are incredibly versatile due to their flexibility. These amazing trees are favored by bees for making honey, favored by our 'green' artists who find willow sourced charcoal and Sweden's favorite bio-fuel energy sources! Most noteworthy, willow is one of the 4 species used to build the Sukka for the fall feast days of “Sukkot.”

Custom Swedish machinery harvesting willow bio-fuel during winter

how a medium-strength willow bark tea should look

Tea made from willow bark is quite bitter, most people cannot enjoy a strong brew. However, more often than not a strong brew is not needed.

This is not normal and indicative to a large issue. Dont suppress pain, fix it. 

Most people on this planet 'push through' or 'tough out' an extraordinary amount of pain every second of everyday. People don't want to hear of 'pain relievers' because they have 'tried everything' and nothing works, the only thing that works for these people is putting yourself into a place where you can manage the pain on your own.

When we see willow we should adore its pain reliving abilities. 

I often make tea for the elders at our local seniors center, on the day that I made them all willow, it was clear that they did not believe what I was saying. This plant is so effective at treating pain and inflammation, most specifically due to arthritis, that a mild tasting cup is often so overwhelming that you fall asleep. That is exactly what happened at the seniors center, they all fell fast asleep! This is because they were living everyday with so much pain that they had trouble sleeping! Not anymore, they and many people around the world adore willow for its amazing pain relieving qualities.

3 Proofs of the medical claims of Willow bark:

Even has extensive ethnoveterinary uses are documented

Traditional: 

Most extensively willow bark has been used to treat all forms of arthritis. Willow bark is also used to relieve pain of all types.

Scientific: 

The willow family in Latin is salix. All trees and shrubs in this family have salicin present in the bark. In your body salicin is converted to salicylic acid and when Pharma was able to synthetically produce Salicylic acid they found that most people were severely allergic to it so they remedied that by synthetically creating acetyl salicylic acid which is ASA or aspirin, sold as an over the counter pain reliever.

We know isolated salicin (ASA) is a great pain reliever and NSAID, but why do studies show that Salicates have no effect to back up the 'incredibly lofty' and unproven mystical claims of; not only relieving but reversing all types of arthritis, effectiveness as an anti-coagulant and reducing fevers?

In plenty comparative studies done on willow bark vs. isolated salicin, it was noted in every study that the presence of polyphenols and flavanoids in the willow bark is the only way to explain willows effect on arthritis. Salicin alone has no effect on arthritis.

It is important to note that when researching you have to first find out if the study was using a proper extraction method. I found that every single study done that had negative or neutral results was done using improper extraction methods. Which render the study completely invalid.

Lets see what the medical sciences has to say about properly done willow bark extracts and their effect on arthritis.

Oxygen Free Radicals 

These are some of the main contributors to arthritis. Lets go through every Oxygen free radical that has been labelled as a contributor to arthritis and see if our trusty medical sciences has found willow to be of benefit:

Superoxide:

Arthritis sufferers should know about a devastating compound called Superoxide. Willow bark extracts show absolutely incredible scavenging activity to Superoxide, drawing it straight out of the joints!

hydroxyl radical: 

Another radical labelled as a contributor to arthritis, destroying not just joint tissue but all epithelial tissues, the hydroxyl radical is scavenged with ease by our overly abundant willow bark!

Hypochlorous Acid:

In recent studies hypochlorous acid (HOCL) has been found the be the culprit for devastating the synoval fluid and therefore, overall cartilage degradation. Who would have thought: willow bark extracts show unrivalled scavenging activity against hypochlorous acid. Which means if you are having willow bark extracts you don’t have to worry about hypochlorous acid destroying your cartilage. Another cause of arthritis totally taken care of by our good friend willow!

Hydrogen Peroxide:

Hydrogen peroxide is another radical that when it gets inside your joints it eats away at them, and needless to day it needs to be taken care of. Well just as you would expect it Willow is one of the best scavengers for this radical. Consumption of willow extracts eliminates Hydrogen Peroxide from ever being a problem.

Wasn’t that fun! We just discovered that willow is the ultimate arthritis-specific oxygen-radical scavenger! Thanks Willow!

Other Causes, factors to consider:

Lipid Perioxidation:

Another factor that cannot be over looked in the development of arthritis is something called Lipid Perioxidation (MDA). The level of MDA in arthritis sufferers is substantially higher. You will be comforted to know that willow is a surefire way to suppress MDA. Yet another major contributor to arthritis taken care of. 

Let me reinstate to you that these harmful radicals and degrading processes are huge problems solved with deadly accuracy by willow. In other words, it is not a minor help, it is a major help, unrivaled even in the natural realm.

Neutrophilic Cells:

One of the biggest threats our body has – as far as arthritis is concerned – are neutrophilic cells (type of white blood cell). We know that they concentrate in arthritis sufferer's joints. They simply excrete enzymes that are like acid to your joints.When the joint is suffering by infection, physically damaging it or simply by ageing these cells infiltrate your joints at an alarming rate accelerating the rate arthritis progresses.

Neutrophilic cells play such a large role that many reputable institutes are now saying that because of their immunoregulatory qualities they are what drive the autoimmune process that is the cause of Rheumatoid arthritis.

What we need to do it control this influx of neutrophilic cells.

Guess what bark extract perfectly reduces infiltration of neutrophilic cells, Willow bark!

Osteophytes:

Osteophytes are something people with arthritis are very aware of. They are those protruding parrot-beak-like hunks of bone that stick out seemingly at random. They can be very debilitating. Extensive invivo studies have been done usually with rats and sheep and their findings are beautiful, and come as great news to some of us. Willow bark extracts not only stop the formation of osteophytes but reverse them. 

The complete mechanism of these actions are still unknown but the bottom line still remains: Willow works.

Some relatively minor but important findings to note:

Protection from soft tissue swelling and bone reabsorbtion is very well handled by willow and in their studies inflammatory mediator levels dropped so significantly that I want to scream how happy I am that we have science proving our ancient wisdom!!

Willow is called an antipyretic. It stops fevers by causing the hypothalamus to override an interleukin-induced fever. The body then works to lower body temp. This is the exact mechanism that ibuprofen and Acetaminophen use, but better.

The Doctrine of Signatures:

Our ancients looked at this beautiful herb as one that restores flexibility. This method of interpreting the medicinal use of plants is not redundant, its very different with every plant. It is not always “this plant looks like this body part”

Willow is different from every other tree in that it is extremely flexible. If you look at this signature feature you will find, very easily, what it has been created to heal. If you are becoming stiff and arthritic you look to willow as being the plant that has been created to help heal your arthritis. Then you find a professional to teach you how to use the herb and make extracts. Its. That. Simple.  

How do you interpret what willow is made to heal now?