Homemade Calendula Ointment Recipe Collection using Dried or Fresh Flowers (2024)

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” - Hippocrates

Thiscalendula ointment recipe collection contains 3 recipes using marigolds. These are the pot or garden marigolds, not the stinky variety that you use in your garden to keep insects away. The recipes here are for calendula infusions using a cold method, or you can use a hot method that is a lot quicker.

These salves or ointments can easily be made at home, especially ifyou have bees like I do, and have a ready supply of beeswax. However,if you don't keep bees you can also source beeswax off the Internet very easily, and you canalso grow the pot marigolds in your gardens during the summer months. They are a care-free flower that does well in just about every climate.

Calendula Ointment Recipe 1 using Fresh Flowers, Cold Method

3 cups pot marigold flowers (calendula officinalis)
1 cup olive oil
1/4 cup melted beeswax
20 drops essential oil of lavender

This is the first cold method recipe. Removethe petals from the flowers picked on a nice sunny day, after the dewhas evaporated. Place the petals in a glass jar, preferably a dark glassjar and add the olive oil. Shake for one or two minutes and leave in adark cupboard for 2 weeks to steep.

Remove from the jar bystraining through a piece of muslin over a bowl. Take the muslin withthe marigold petals and squeeze any of the moisture left behind as muchas possible into your bowl. In this way you are making sure that youextract as much of the essential oils from the remaining petals aspossible.

Now melt the beeswax, add the olive oil mixture, andfinally add your drops of lavender oil. Mix all together with a cleanwooden spoon, and allow to cool. It will solidify as it cools. Label anddate. Gentle for all family members, including babies.

Calendula Ointment Recipe 2 using Dried Flowers, Cold Method

This is the second cold method recipe.

1/4 cup dried calendula petals
1/2 cup olive oil
1/8 cup melted beeswax

Again, follow the directions above for the cold method calendula recipe using fresh flowers.

Using the hot method of making this salve is possible if you want your ointment immediately. However, there are some drawbacks. Even though you will will get your ointment without having to wait the 2 weeks for the essential oils to be released into the oil, you will find that a lot of the oils are lost through the heat process, and via steam, no matter how tight you think your lid might be.

So bearing that in mind, you may want to make this recipe first, if you are in a hurry, and in the meantime, make the cold process ointment recipe for later use.

You can make this recipe either on top of the stove, which takes up a lot of time, as you will need to keep an eye on it for 2 hours while it simmers away. Or you can throw it into a crockpot and forget about it for 3-4 hours, which is something I prefer to do if I make this ointment in a hurry.

3 cups pot marigold flowers (calendula officinalis)
1 cup olive oil
1/4 cup melted beeswax
20 drops essential oil of lavender

Turning the crockpot on low, place your flowers and olive oil into the pot and make sure that you have a good seal on your lid. Leave the flowers and oil to infuse for at least 3 hours. If you are using a saucepan make sure that it is a heavy-based saucepan, place on a low heat and allow to barely simmer for 2 hours.

Remove from heat, strain through a piece of muslin or cheesecloth into a bowl. Squeeze the last of the oils out of the flower petals by scooping up the muslin, twisting it in on itself so that it extracts every last precious drop of oil. Add the melted beeswax. Add the essential lavender oil and place in a clean jar. Allow to cool, label and date.

So, as you can see, with a few simple ingredients and very little effort on your part, you can make any of these calendula ointment recipes at home for yourself and your family. The ointment is totally natural, with no nasty additives or chemicals, and is perfectly safe to use on people of all ages.

By Kathryn Bax

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