Our trusty family milk cow, Dori, came to us with a wound near her udder that just doesn’t want to fully heal. She’s healthy, happy, and 
producing well, but it’s been a couple months, a vet visit, and a few hundred gallons of milk and the pesky sore just doesn’t want to finish healing up. We don’t generally resort to antibiotics for this sort of thing, and we need the milk so we’re trying multiple routes to get her healed up.
Enter one of our favorite holistic/herbal healing companions, The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable by Juliette de Bairacli Levy. The original text was published in 1954, but we have the latest edition from1991. It’s been an invaluable resource for treating and preventing veterinary issues for us as well as general well being in the household.
I formulated this wound Salve based on ingredient recommendations for the treatment of wounds found in the Handbook. I modified her recipe for a healing rinse (the Salve should stay in place a little better) and added a couple of our favorite healing adjuncts for added effect.
Ingredients
6-8 large comfrey leaves finely chopped
1/4 cup elder leaves finely chopped
1 quart coconut oil
1 cup plantain leaves loosely packed
1/4 cup beeswax
5 drops frankensense essential oil
Directions
- Combine finely chopped comfrey and elder leaves and cover with coconut oil to make an infusion. I used our yogurt maker and let it steed overnight, but you can leave the combination in a war, place and let it sit for a week or so. I was in a bit of a jury so we opted for the yogurt incubator!
- Once your comfrey/elder oil is done set aside 1 pint for your salve, clean your plantain leaves, place them in a blender, add about a 1/4 cup of your oil that you set aside, and pulse. You need enough of the oil to make a nice smooth slurry with the plantain.
- Meanwhile, in a double boiler, melt down your beeswax.
- When the wax is melted add the plantain slurry, and the remainder of your pint of comfrey oil, mix thoroughly, add the frankensense essential oil, and continue heating and stirring until everything is mixed well.
- Place in a widemouthed container and let cool. Makes a little over a pint of Salve, and a hair under a pint of comfrey/elder oil that can be used to make another batch. This is a nice smooth Salve that penetrates quickly and spreads easily.
A word of caution here…these ingredients are powerful healing medicines and will cause a wound to heal over quickly, make sure the wound is thoroughly cleaned and there is nothing embedded in the wound before applying. The healing happens so fast that the surface will heal up and can leave contaminants underneath with potential to cause an abses.
This healing Salve can be used on all sorts of wounds, skin abrasions, irritations, and rashes. It will provide quick relief, and rapid healing. Enjoy, and let me know how it works for you!
Wonderful post! I would think coconut oil alone would be great but I have been unaware of the benefits of those plants. How is sweet Dori? God bless, Patricia
Coconut oil on its own is great stuff…antimicrobial, soothing, etc. That’s why I decided to use it for this salve! The comfrey and plantain are pretty well known for their healing abilities (another name for comfrey is knit bone…), I’d never heard of using the elder leaves before I read the book mentioned above. This is some good stuff for sure! I’m glad we were able to share some new info with you. Ole’ Dori is doing great, we just moved her into a paddock with our Red Devon bull so hopefully she’ll settle quickly and we’ll have a nice jersey/devon calf next summer! Thanks Patricia.
One thing I forgot that makes a good addition to this recipe is adding a few tablespoons of fresh chamomile flowers into the plantain slurry for added antimicrobial affect and soothing for irritated wounds.