Mullein Flower Oil for Swimmer’s Ear
Today’s DIY herbal remedy for your Travel First Aid Kit involves a little wild foraging and plant identification skills because herbalists are all about plants. It’s one thing to run to the health food store and grab a prepared remedy, but it’s totally another thing to make the remedy yourself. And to actually gather the plants yourself, that’s the highest level of herbalism. So today we’ll head out to find a specific plant and harvest one part of that plant and make an oil infusion specifically for earaches, swimmer’s ear, and plugged ears.
This traditional remedy was tested with children by Israeli researchers and was found to be more effective than antibiotics and more effective than chemical drugs in treating the ear infections in children. Once you make this remedy it has a shelf life of two years or more.
Package it in a one ounce bottle with a dropper lid, for air travel. You’ll only need 1 or 2 drops in each ear to remedy earache and relieve pain.
A dumb thing I did
You know how they say don’t use Q-tips in your ears? Well I’ve done that for decades. I’m always careful not to go too deep with the Q-tip, until I wasn’t. Last winter, as I was cleaning my ears with a Q-tip, the Q-tip slipped deeper into my ear. I hurt my ear drum. I had sudden searing pain. And it didn’t go away when I came to my senses.
I immediately used this herbal remedy, that I made 2 years ago, and put 2 drops in my ear. Within minutes the pain eased. I used it at bedtime over the next 3 days just because the ear was sensitive when I touched it. It cleared up the pain and did it quickly.
You may not be dumb like I was. But earaches can happen at the most inopportune time, usually at night. I’ve held many a crying baby that is pulling on his ear while he screams. I’ve been travelling with kids and had them wake up crying after they spent an hour playing in the hotel pool. This remedy is a must in your travel kit, whether you travel with kids or travel alone. Earaches can happen to anyone.
Let’s get started. You’ll need only 3 ingredients.
Download the printable recipe by clicking on the link below:
Mullein Flower Ear Ache Remedy
Mullein flower earache remedy
Yield: 4 ounces
Ingredients:
¼ cup Mullein flowers, fresh or dried
2 Garlic cloves, peeled, finely chopped (optional)
¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
¼ teaspoon vitamin E oil (optional)
4 x 1 ounce colored glass bottles with dropper lids
Directions:
Make a double boiler with a 1 cup glass measuring cup, canning jar ring, and saucepan. Put the herbs and olive oil in the measuring cup. Fill the saucepan with water so that it comes halfway up the sides of the measuring cup. Simmer the water over low heat, keeping it just below boiling. Simmer for one hour. Add more water to the saucepan as necessary to keep the water level half way up the side of the measuring cup.
After simmering for one hour, remove from heat. Allow the herbs and oil mixture to come to room temperature naturally, while you do something else.
Once the herbs are cool, strain the oil. Discard the herbs and retain the oil. Add the vitamin E to the oil, if you are using it.
Pour the oil into 1 or 2 ounce bottles with dropper tops. Label “Mullein flower oil” and date. Include the measure – 1 or 2 ounce, if you intend to take this through airport security. Pack in your plastic liquids bag for airport security in your carry-on.
How to use:
Warm the dropper bottle in a mug of hot tap water for 15 minutes. Put 1 to 2 drops of the oil in each ear, treating the pain-free ear first. Do not touch the glass dropper tip to the inside of the ear. Simply drop the ear drops into the ear. Place a cotton ball or wadded up tissue paper into the ear to hold the ear drops in place. Repeat as often as necessary to relieve pain. Continue the ear drops for two or three days at night, once the pain and redness has stopped.
This can be used prior to swimming to protect the ears from water getting behind the ear drum and causing infection.