Herbal Infused Oils (HIO'S) - A New Frontier in Aromatherapy 

By Rhavda Cooper Emison


Herbal infused oils (HIO's) are base carrier oils that have been infused with herbs not generally made into essential oils. This is due basically to the small amount of essential oils within the herbs. Examples would be calendula, dandelion, goldenseal, St. John's Wort, milk thistle, Saw Palmetto, and the list goes on forever. 

Traditionally most producers of herbal infused oils only let their herbal infused oils set for a few days, 1 month, 6 weeks, or a couple of months. In my research I believe that a minimum of one year is the best. I experimented for over 5 years before reaching this conclusion that the herb needed to set in the base carrier oil for a minimum of one year.  

Herbal Infused Oils age like fine wines or like the base essential oils of Patchouli, Sandalwood, Vetiver, etc. Of course, one could use their herbal oils after 6 months but here again, the herbal oils are only beginning to really age well. If one removes the infused oil too quickly then they are not getting nor receiving the full benefit of the herb being infused.

There are many books and manuals that give many different, yet similar methods on how to prepare herbal infused oils. However, one thing should be noted before talking about how to and that is the use of hot oil to prevent botulism from appearing in your oils. I use a very hot base carrier oil when making my herbal infused oils in order to kill out any unwanted organisms that tend to hitch-hike on fresh herbs as well as to release the essential oils that the individual plant has.  

I, also, like to use the more common "neutral" base oils like vegetable, canola, corn, safflower, sesame, sunflower, coconut because these oils tend to have a long shelf life, don't
smell bad, don't go rancid quickly, are relatively easy to use with the more expensive base carrier oils such as Sweet Almond, Grapeseed, etc.

I will share my method as follows:

First, refer to "Basic Rules on How to Use Your Supplies." You want to use clean bottles and the amount of herb you wish to infuse.     There are several schools of thought on how to infuse your herbs. These schools include for dried herbs:

1.    Letting your herbs soak in the sun for a specific time, generally for several days, strain, and use as needed.
2.    Letting your herbs set in oil in a cool dark spot for several weeks, strain and use.
3.    Pouring hot oil over your herbs, and then setting the jar in the sun for a specific time, strain and use as needed.
4.    Pouring hot oil that has been heated to as hot as possible on your stove (double-boiler pan or regular pan) over your herbs. Cap them, let them cool, label them and put them in a cool, dark spot for a minimum of 1 year. Be sure that you record your formula here. Then at the end of the year, strain off what you need and leave the rest of the oil in the jar with the
botanical still in it. The remaining botanical with oil will only get stronger and ages better the longer it sets and does not go rancid.

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