Jewelweed

[Guest guest]

Yes, Mary

Jewelweed , if used for PI is to be water extracted. And YES, I do

think a lot of people do not know what plants need to be water solvent

, which ones need to be alcohol solvent and which oil solvent.

Knowledge badly needed when using essential oils, too...

While you are testing, I've also been told that it is better in a

vinegar solution than i.e. rubbing alcohol or alcohol, oils, to not

spread the problem further.

Dried jewelweed is pretty useless. But frozen works.

One way my teacher used it, on the island where we had our summer camp.

She would put the jewelweed into plastic bags and hang the bags from

tree branches, facing the sun. It was mandatory when passing those bags

to give the stems a twist in the bag. It would yield a red-brown juice,

that she later gathered and cut with vinegar. I asked her one year, why

she did that, when I also knew that she just twisted stalks and put them

with vinegar on glass jars. Her answer was that she used the sun

extracted juice for other skin problems, straight. She 'cured' with it a

bad long years standing case of athletes foot .

I make an all purpose healing salve that soothes and takes care of a lot

of little things, mainly make it for bug bites for kids, but often add

jewelweed to it when infusing the other oils. It does seem to make a

small difference, but I would not use that salve for a true PI problems.

One year we had a person on the island that taught pharmacist to be

pharmacists. She was absolutely terrified of getting PI, for she had a

terrible sensitivity to it, often to be only helped with steroids. She

was amazed at the power of just using the juice from the stems on the

few outbreaks she got ...

It's just too easy to stuff a glass jar with twisted jewelweed stems,

fill it up with vinegar and than let nature do the rest. I do know this

is a very potent mix to battle PI, for some guys from the road garage

come by my house, asking for the brew every year.... since I do not

sell my products, just give them away or trade for jars, vinegar, vodka,

bottles etc., they make sure to keep my driveway passable in winter, not

depositing a big pile of snow from their plows...

C-M