With two basic foods a wonderful oil can be produced to use as a natural remedy to reduce cough, ear pain and many other maladies. Fresh garlic plus olive oil and ten minutes of time is all it takes to make an amazing food safe healing oil.
Garlic Oil Ingredients:
- Fresh bulbs of garlic
- Olive oil
Garlic Oil Directions:
- Separate cloves of garlic from as many bulbs as you care to use. Several large bulbs will supply a family and several friends for a winter in most cases!
- Use a garlic press to mince the garlic.
- Place garlic in a mason jar or other glass container.
- Pour olive oil over the garlic. It should completely cover the garlic. Because the goal is a very concentrated oil, don’t use too much oil. Use the picture above as a guide for how much olive oil to use.
- Put a cover on the jar of olive oil and garlic.
- Allow the garlic and oil to sit for ten days in a kitchen cabinet. Stir daily if desired, though this step is optional.
- After ten days, use an old t-shirt (that you can toss out afterwards!) to strain out the garlic from the oil.
- The resulting oil can be stored in a clean jar in the refrigerator.
During acute illness, the oil can sit out on the counter if it is being used often. (It will solidify in the refrigerator.)
The oil should last for 6 months if it is kept in the refrigerator most of the time.
How to Use Garlic Oil
The good news is that garlic oil is an amazing natural remedy. The not so good news is that the oil will announce its use wherever you go.
Cough
Garlic oil is most famous as a wonderful remedy for a cough. Massage the oil onto the chest and/or back every few hours to relieve cough. Garlic has antiviral and antibacterial properties and will kill viruses and bacteria. If using garlic oil for pneumonia, use it every two hours.
To use garlic oil for the cough of a baby, rub the oil onto the bottoms of the feet every two hours.
Ear Ache
For ear pain, use a few drops of warmed garlic oil in each ear three times a day. (Test warm oil on the wrist to make sure it is not too hot to put in the ear!)
Do not microwave garlic oil. To heat it up for use in the ear, put some of the oil into a small glass container and place the container in a larger container of hot water for 10 minutes. An empty dropper bottle is great to put garlic oil in for ears. Then a mug of hot water can be used to hold the dropper bottle when heating it up.
Do not use garlic oil in the ear if the eardrum has ruptured. Instead, rub the oil around the outside of the ear, especially behind and below the ear.
Skin Infections
Garlic oil can be used topically on skin infections. Apply the oil three times daily. For athlete’s foot, apply the oil before bed and cover the feet with socks.
Tooth Ache
Garlic oil can be massaged into the gum around a sore tooth. Alternately, saturate a cottonball with garlic oil and hold against a sore tooth. Garlic oil, having been prepared with only two foods, is safe if ingested.
What if Garlic Oil is Needed Before it is Finished?
Garlic oil can be used before the ten days of steeping are up. It just won’t be as strong. Strain off the oil that is needed and continue to steep what is left.
If garlic oil is needed immediately and there is no time for steeping, place minced garlic and olive oil in a pan and heat very gently on the stove for 45 minutes. The garlic may brown slightly and that is okay. After 45 minutes strain out the garlic and use the oil as needed.
Have you made or used garlic oil? Please send us some feedback!
