How to Make Lemon Balm Oil
Video transcription
Hi, my name is Bob Linde, I'm an acupuncturist and herbalist in St. Petersburg, Florida. Today, we're going to actually make a lemon balm oil. The techniques that we use for this, we can actually use with any fresh herb to make an oil. That oil has a number of different functions. We can do with a lemon balm oil, we can use it topically for any kind of a herpes outbreak, it's excellent for that. We can actually, also make that into a salve, which is a whole another operation. And that'll also be useful, both as a muscle rub, as well as for herpes. But if we use another herb, whatever it's functions are, we can do the same things with that, using it topically. So, some of the ingredients that we need to gather together. Ideally, some fresh lemon balm, although, it can be done with dried lemon balm, extra virgin, cold pressed olive oil. You can ideally use a blender, it can also be done in a mortar and pestle. It doesn't really matter but the mortar and pestle is an awful lot of work. I personally like to use a potato ricer, in order to press the oil out after we're done. And with that, we need to get some unbleached cheesecloth, in order to strain out the solid products. And then, of course, we need a container in order to put our finished product in, ideally something that's airtight. If you're going to store your oil for a period of time because it has organic material in it. You'll also want to add a couple of drops of essential oil, or you can use vitamin E oil as a preservative for your lemon balm oil. So, once we go ahead and get all of our ingredients together. We can go ahead and roughly chop our lemon balm, place that into our blender or grinder. Once we put that in there, I like to just pulse the grinder a little bit, to rough it up a little bit more. Then we can add in, depending on how much lemon balm, we usually look at about a cup to a full handful of lemon balm. We can go ahead and add the oil into it, blend it all together. Then what I like to do, is then set it, drain that off and set it aside in the bowl. You can even add a low flame to that, heat it up ever so gently. So that you'd till be able to put your hand in the fire, or you can just let it sit for about an hour. Once you do that, line your potato ricer with your cheese cloth. And you can go ahead and pour the oil through that. And squeeze it out, get those last really good remnants, with all the good essential oils in it. And then, if you need to preserve it for longer, add your preservative to that, and store it in a cool, dark place. And it will usually last for a month, sometimes even longer. Or, you can go ahead and take that lemon balm oil and turn that into a salve, at a later date, if you so desire. So, let's go ahead and get started with that, to make our lemon balm oil. So that we can use it topically to enjoy, we can use it for all kinds of great different remedies or use the herbs of your choice to make an oil. Thanks and get some more of those wonderful herbs from your grocery store or your local herbalist to make your oils with.