Comments on: Alder Pain Salve

By: Dee

Dee — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 22:49:21 +0000

Hi Kiva I am attempting to make a pain salve from infused Alder bark oil. (it was the only thing i had on hand) I noticed however, although the Alder was sitting in the oil for 6 weeks, it didn’t turn colour and still smells a bit like Olive oil? is this normal? My tincture turned bright orange ( I know the alcohol did this) but I was assuming the oil would atleast smell a bit differently. Or turn a slightly different colour.

thanks
dee

By: shamana flora

shamana flora — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:45:28 +0000

I got a call from someone this morning with an infected spider bite. I’d usually reccomend topical echiancea and plantain in this case, but the person didn’t have echinacea on hand, but did have fresh plantain and alder leaves. Poulticing with both seems to be helping so far. I’ll let you know how it goes further! have You used alder poultices for topical infections/drawing/insect stings and bites? It was god awful early in the morning, and it kind of jumped out at me as the best solution, without much thought, or brain power.

By: Kiva Rose

Kiva Rose — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:11:16 +0000

Hi litha, I’ve made it with a mix of fresh and dried, as well as just dried. Why? Because it’s what I had on hand at the time and it worked LOL. I think Alder is one of those plants that does remarkably well when dried although it certainly is lovely fresh too.

What part you use might depend on what you’re doing…. I think the most pain relieving aspects may be in the leaves and bark with the catkins and cones having a stronger concentration of the antibacterial qualities. However, I haven’t isolated the different parts much, I try to get bits of whatever is on the tree then and use it in whatever I’m doing. I have heard of great results just using leaves though.

Hope that helps, let me know if you have any other questions.

By: litha

litha — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:38:42 +0000

hi kiva, i’m trying to clarify your alder salve-making process. did you use all parts dried, or just dried leaves and bark? and why dried (or not)? right now the catkins are super fresh, plump, and resinous….. it seems that making a fresh catkin infusion at this time would be ideal. thanks!

By: the Witchen Kitchen Beginner Herbal » Blog Archive » First signs of Spring

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 15:18:34 +0000

[...] I also found numerous Alders growing along side the stream, which I’m particularly excited about since I was just reading about some of its healing properties on Kiva Rose’s herbal blog here and here. [...]

By: Sunshine Goldsberry

Sunshine Goldsberry — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:03:01 +0000

Green greetings from Vancouver Island! An interesting use of alder is fresh leaves on the body to release toxins(often done by putting leaves between the bed sheets for sleep time), refreshing the leaves if done for a second night. I was introduced to this concept by a Finnish woman who had suffered skin problems due to being exposed to radioactivity after the Chernobyl accident. She was given this instruction by a healer there (they used some other related plant) but I was amazed to see how her skin cleared up after using the alder technique here on VI. Sunshine

By: Kiva Rose

Kiva Rose — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:20:23 +0000

Oh thank you so much Susan… I’m so glad you like the blog, and thank you for reading!! Yes, I often combine it with Goldenrod, and sometimes with Pine or sometimes with Cottonwood.

Kiva

By: Susan

Susan — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:03:59 +0000

Kiva Rose: I’m finally getting to read your blog on a regular basis. Much love to you for your awesome work! Great to hear more about Alder too. We don’t have a lot of Alder in Florida, but I have found a nice unpolluted patch not far from home and will plan to be using some this year. Sounds like it would be great with my Pine gum salve and with Goldenrod, just two of my big favorites.

Blessings, Susan in Florida