Participants at our DIY all-natural first aid class used common ingredients from the kitchen pantry to make truly effective and non-toxic medicines

What’s in my All-Heal salve?

• Coconut Oil
• Calendula or Comfrey (fresh or dried)
• Oatmeal

What’s it good for?

• Rashes
• Bug Bites and Stings
• Eczema
• Psoriasis
• Burns

How does it work? 

Let’s start with Coconut Oil. Dr. Axe lauds the wound healing properties of Coconut Oil in his article, “77 Coconut Oil Uses“. Here’s Use #29:

Wound Salve – Coconut oil has been used for thousands of years to speed healing of rashes, burns, and open wounds. You can use it just like you would neosporin. To make a homemade neosporin mix coconut oil, frankincense, lavender and melaleuca oil. The antibacterial and antifungal properties of coconut oil help to keep the area free of infection, and the lauric acid in coconut oil helps to speed healing.

And consider this excerpt from a scientific study about “Wound management with coconut oil in Indonesian folk medicine” from GreenMedInfo.com:

Coconut oil is particularly useful because of its biochemical structure: unlike olive oil and animal fatty tissue, it consists of short-chained and saturated fatty acids. These qualities in coconut oil prevent it from becoming oxidized and rancid, thus making it suitable for the preservation of medicinal plants and for wound treatment.

And further from GreenMedInfo.com:

Healing Wounds: Coconut has been used for wound healing since time immemorial.  Three of the identified mechanisms behind these healing effects are its ability to accelerate re-epithelialization, improve antioxidant enzyme activity, and stimulate higher collagen cross-linking within the tissue being repaired.[iii]  Coconut oil has even been shown to work synergistically with traditional treatments, such as silver sulphadizine, to speed burn wound recovery.[iv]

Coconut oil is an excellent remedy for topical first aid on it’s own, as well as making an ideal base for adding a few simple ingredients depending on the desired healing effect.

Calendula

Comfrey

and finally,

Oatmeal

Oatmeal is the third and final ingredient in this incredibly simple and powerfully healing recipe. Why oatmeal? An oatmeal bath is traditional first-aid for kids who get tangled in poison oak or ivy. The oatmeal soothes and moisturizes the skin while it gently pulls out the toxins causing irritation.

Here’s the DL from dermatologists on the skin-loving benefits of oatmeal:

Oatmeal whisks away dead cells, irritation, and redness, leaving a soft, moist glow behind.

While this could be news to you, oatmeal’s long been a staple among skin pros—even ancient ones. Its skin-soothing powers were known as early as 2000 BC, and to this day, the FDA cites it as effective for relieving dryness and inflammation, including insect stings, rashes, and eczema. That’s why finely powdered (“colloidal”) oatmeal is sifted into soothing body soaks, moisturizers, and soaps. (Pulverizing the oats into powder makes it easier to disperse their healing goodness—and in soaks it keeps them from collecting in the bottom of the tub.)

So, how do I make it? 

Combine equal parts coconut oil, calendula or comfrey, and powdered oats (I put a handful of Gluten Free Oats in a coffee mill for this effect) in a saucepan on low heat. Stir constantly, please don’t scald or let the oil begin to bubble. Just get it hot enough to melt the coconut oil and mix the herbs and oatmeal evenly. 

2 options: 

My preferred method is to leave the oatmeal and herbs in the oil, and use it as is. The application is slightly messy, but still very effective. I’m into the whole-plant, just throw it in and make a beautiful mess kinda method. So, when the oil is melted and everything is well mixed, just pour into a wide-mouth jar, cap and save in your pantry or medicine cabinet. You may need to heat again slightly before using, or add a tiny amount of olive oil to the mix to make it more malleable.

Alternatively, you can leave everything in a crock pot on low, or on the stove on the lowest possible setting for a few hours. Allow mixture to cool. Reheat just enough to liquify the coconut oil and strain everything through cheesecloth into a wide mouth jar. The oil will have turned yellow (from the calendula) or green (from the comfrey) and will be a smooth and delightful salve for all kinds of skin problems. Again, if this turns out to be too hard, try adding a small amount of olive oil while melting the coconut oil on the stove, this will increase the workability of your salve.

No need to refrigerate, as we mentioned above, coconut oil is an excellent preservative! If you have any issues with mold or wild yeasts or extremely high humidity, try adding a few drops of Rosemary Oil right before you pour the mix into the jar. Rosemary Essential Oil is a powerful natural preservative and will extend the shelf-life of this salve indefinitely.

Workshop participants sharing homemade remedies including Osha Tincture, Mint and Ginger tummy tea, and 100% all-natural triple antibiotic

Your All-Heal is ready to use once it’s cooled! Spread liberally on affected skin with clean, loving, warm, bare hands. Offer kindness and mindfulness to all your healing works. Blessings and gratitude to Gail Eddy for coming to our workshop, and for your questions that inspired this article! 

Did you try this at home? Send us your pics! Tell us your story!