Bad luck? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that.
Have you heard of bad luck ointment? Pechsalbe is a real all-rounder for the medicine cabinet without artificial ingredients. Here you can find out how you can make pitch ointment yourself.
Tree sap – the gold of the forest
If trees are injured, tree sap escapes through resin channels. This self-protection of the tree, to produce its own plaster, ensures that no intruders such as harmful fungi and bacteria weaken the tree or even let it die. If tree sap emerges from a fresh wound, it is initially sticky and liquid. It hardens over time. The resin of conifers such as spruce, larch, fir and pine are ancient remedies in folk medicine. Whether for baths, incense, plasters or ointments, the essential oils contained in the resin of the conifers have anti-inflammatory, astringent, germicidal, wound-healing, pain-relieving, warming and blood circulation-promoting effects, among other things.
All-round talent for the medicine cabinet
So tree resin has a wide range of effects. An old remedy from medicine is pitch ointment – the healing ointment from the forest. Making pitch ointment yourself is very easy. For this purpose, the resin of the spruce is melted in oil and mixed with beeswax to form a healing ointment. Instead of spruce resin, the resin from pine, larch or fir can be used. The Pechsalbe is a real all-rounder for the medicine cabinet without artificial ingredients and with an incredibly woody smell. Pechsalbe helps with open wounds, muscle tension and joint pain, cold feet, neurodermatitis, rough hands, psoriasis or as a pulling ointment for splinters. Applied thinly, pitch ointment helps as a breast balm. The oils it contains strengthen the bronchi and make it easier to breathe deeply.
In the case of bronchial asthma and whooping cough, pure spruce oil can worsen the spasmodic symptoms!
Do you want to collect tree sap?
Important collection rules
When? You can collect tree sap all year round.
What? The resin is collected when it is no longer liquid and sticky, but solid and hardened.
As? Hardened resin, easy to break off with your fingers. If you use a pocket knife, make sure that you do not remove the resin down to the bark. You could use the knife to add new wounds to the tree.
As with collecting wild herbs, less is more. Collect carefully and only as much as you need!
If your hands have become sticky from collecting, the resin can be easily removed from the skin with a little cooking oil. If you have all the other ingredients together, you can now start stirring.
Make pitch ointment yourself
Recipe for healing ointment from the forest
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Melt tree resin in warm olive oil (approx. 60 ° C) in the first screw gals, stirring occasionally. Let it steep for at least 30 minutes over a low flame, so the active ingredients are released from the tree sap. Filter the resin-oil mixture through a cheesecloth or sieve so that there are no more resin residues in the oil. (There may also be small pieces of wood or bark that were enclosed in the resin.) Now put the oil with the resin in a second jar. Then there is the beeswax. Stir everything in a warm water bath until the wax has melted. Fill the oil into disinfected ointment jars and let the pitch ointment cool down properly before you close the jar with the lid. Due to its disinfecting and germicidal properties, the pitch ointment – stored in a dark and cool place – can be kept for up to 2 years.
Note
All suggestions and recipes mentioned in this article are without guarantee. These are traditional recommendations from folk medicine. The use of wild herbs and medicinal plants does not replace a doctor’s visit and should, if necessary, be discussed with a doctor or pharmacist in advance.
… acquired a taste ?
