Black Drawing Salve

vickeym

I have a few recipes for black drawing salve. They all include infused oils like St. John's Wort, calendula, hyssop and others.

Has anyone tried using tinctures? Do you think it would work? I have a larger variety of tinctures than I do oils.

JodieDownUnder

@vickeym the only recipes I’ve seen for black salve all use infused oils, no tinctures. Sorry I can’t help you more. @torey or @judsoncarroll4 will surely know.

I am trying at the moment to extend my range of infused oils, today I did a calendula oil and 2 days ago I did St Johns Wort and a comfrey oil, so slowly getting there. The black salve recipe I have, has comfrey, calendula and plantain oil in it.

vickeym

@JodieDownUnder Yes those are some of the oils used in the recipes I have. But I really would like to get the salve made sooner than later. Since I don't have the oils made yet, they would require more waiting time. Was just hoping I could substitute the tinctures for the oil.

kbmbillups1

I bought some black drawing ointment from puremedy from the fsa store of all places. It was expensive. The ingredients say organic extra virgin olive oil, organic beeswax, wild harvested pine, wild harvested bloodroot, wild harvested Canadian fir balsam, organic calendula, organic echinacea, organic elder flower.

Torey

A black drawing salve that you make yourself at home is often very different from products sold on the internet. Comfrey, calendula and plantain are the 3 most common herbs I have come across in recipes and these are the three that I would use if I were going to make this product, along with activated charcoal, bentonite clay and honey.

In most cases, I would probably prefer to use charcoal as a poultice to draw out any infection or foreign matter and then follow with a salve for healing after the poultice has done its job.

@vickeym I'm not sure that using tinctures for this application would work. You could always speed up the oils by using the heat infused method and you will have oils within 4 hours.

@kbmbillups1 You must be VERY cautious with any salve containing bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis). It is caustic and corrosive and can damage your skin. Bloodroot has lots of useful properties but I haven't been able to find any listings of properties that includes drawing so I'm not sure why it would be in a drawing salve.

Salves with bloodroot are generally used to treat skin cancers, moles, skin tags, etc. but due to its toxicity, it should only be used by an experienced, well-trained herbalist.

vickeym

torey, yes those herbs are all included. The recipes also have options for including St. John's Wort, Hyssop, Pine, Clove, Rosemary, lavender and Carrot seed oils. Depending on which recipe.

Might have to try the heated oil infusion method.

We use a black drawing salve when I was a kid. It was called "icthamal" not sure of spelling, it was a long time ago. I do remember it was great stuff. Not only for splinters and such, but blackheads, boils, deep pimples, etc. Smelled a bit like tar. Haven't seen it in years.

Torey

@vickeym The name you are thinking of is ichthammol. It is Ammonium bituminosulfonate which is a by-product of shale oil distillation (probably why it smells like tar). While it might work well, it isn't really a herbal treatment or very organic. I'd prefer the drawing salve. I think it would work just as well without the petrochemicals.

Pine pitch would be a great addition to this salve. I have seen lavender EO in some recipes. Rosemary is a good antibacterial and would make it smell very nice.

kbmbillups1

@torey Thanks! I'll do some research before I use it. I did buy it for moles.

vickeym

torey I agree, doing without the petrochemicals is a much better choice. As an adult now I know about these things, back as a kid I just knew it made things feel better, drew out slivers and so on. Many items we used back then are no longer on the market, most with good reason.