Mullein Flower Oil

In the Fall, as the golden rod is displaying it's yellow hue, you may notice some tall, straight plants with yellow flowers at the top. Mullein plants. You can see them in ditches all over the country side. Unique looking.... with big, fuzzy, wooly leaves.

They are biannual. The first year you can spot their leaves growing among other wild foliage. Then in their second year they send forth a tall shoot, where at the top you will find a lovely cluster of small, yellow flowers. (look up mullein plants on Google for an image)

This past Fall I went on a hike with my friend, Hannah, to pick mullein flowers. We gathered maybe a cup or two and then set them out to dry just for the evening. This was a good idea because there had been plenty of bugs we'd managed to bring home on the flowers.... who, fortunately, crawled off my collection before it was time to bottle them.

After a short airing-out period I put the flowers in a small jar, covered them in olive oil and put the lid on, beginning the cold infusion method of making an herbal remedy. The next day I opened the jar to remove air bubbles that had been trapped (sort of like you'd do when preparing a jar of veggies you are about to pressure cook). Sealing the lid back on I left the jar in a sunny windowsill and let it alone for almost two months. Then, when the time was right, I strained the flowers from the oil, discarding them. I put the oil into cute little jars that I'd purchased on amazon, which may have been the most fun and exciting part. :)

The next step was to wait..... for someone to get an ear ache!

Sure enough as the season grew colder and sickness was starting to plague the community, my brother developed a terrible ear ache.
Now I've heard that antibiotics help fight an ear ache but each year, as the immune system becomes resistant to the antibodies, the ear aches hurt worse and worse. ....and ear aches are painful enough. If the mullein flower oil worked then this would be good news, indeed.

My mom warmed the oil up and dropped it into my brother's troubled ear. He'd had the ache since the day before and hadn't slept a wink because the pain was so unbearable. Literally, within less than 5 minutes, he'd fallen fast asleep and received much needed rest because the oil had provided relief. The mullein flower oil was a success!!

Although I can't say for sure, I believe the infusion is supposed to relieve swelling, pain, and fight infection, though it cannot be used on a punctured eardrum. Some say they use it on other external issues as well. I still have a lot to learn about the mullein plant and it's healing properties but I am quite happy with the results it's flowers produced!

For more information, Google, "Mullein Oil for Ear Pain". I also found a lot of helpful advice for how to administer the oil on Greenster.com.

How To Use Mullein Flower Oil:
-Warm oil slightly, put some into the affected ear with a medicine dropper and plug loosely with a cotton ball.
-Don't use if ear drum is punctured.
-In addition, echinacea and goldenseal are supposed to be effective in helping fight ear aches.

Genesis 1:29, "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth..."