[Herbalist] bruise salve

[foxryde]

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Greetings,

Good to hear from you!  Hope all is going well!

At 08:45 AM 2/6/03 -0500, you wrote:
> >What makes the oil and the
> > alcohol stay mixed together - I don't see an emulsifier.  I also don't see
> > any preservative to keep the mixture from going bad (oil and water make a
> > wonderful bacterial soup - my research doesn't support alcohol as a
> > reliable buggie killer).
>
>*blink* I missed something here.... Alcohol is a very good preservative,
>well known for killing 'buggies'. Mixtures of either vinegar or alcohol in
>sufficient quantities with oil are quite well known for NOT going bad...

Alcohol kills bugs in situ - direct contact.  It gets overwhelmed with
introduced bugs.  It does not stop oxidation.  Vinegar works by the
toxicity of the by-product of the acetobacter (sp - I talk more than I
write <grin>) being such a low pH that most things are unable to
thrive.  They have started finding critters living in very low pH solutions
recently, which is very scarey.  All salad dressings contain bug killers
and oxidation preventers and are stored in the refrigerator.  They also
generally have emulsifiers which the Bruise Juice recipe doesn't.

I am blanking on another alcohol and oil mixture besides the Bruise
Juice.  Help me out here.  I think this works because the alcohol kills the
extant buggies and the dispensing method doesn't lend itself to mass
quantities of introduced buggies.

The hard thing is there are so many activities which are called "to
preserve" the product.  It get confusing.  I wrote about this at some
length in another missive.


>Now, the recipe in question is not period at all, and I don't know what
>accounts for the popularity-- I'm much more in favor of Iasmin's bruise
>balm.
>
>Does anyone have any good tips for additives to solid (beeswax) balms?
>Some of the ones I have made have developed dark/grey spots in them, which
>probably means they are spoiled. But I'm not sure what to add to keep this
>from happening, and I can't give away the stuff until I'm sure I can
>stabilize it!

Could the dark spots be where there were flecks of plant material where
mold could occur?  Do you use wet plants in your infusions?  That might
introduce water as well.

A totally dry salve should only have problems if water is introduced via
fingers, etc. with molding.  It will have lots of problems with oxidation,
especially if you heat it above about 120 degrees F during the infusion
process.

Hope this helps,
Leonora


>Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise        jenne at mail.browser.net
>"I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by
>giving, by losing." -- Anais Nin
>
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Fox Ryde Gardens - Handmade herbal products for bath, body, & spirit
7743 West First Street
Loveland, CO 80537
970/669-3835
Visit our website: http://www.foxryde.com

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