DIY oli maceration

Macerated oils (infused oils) are oils which have been used to extract the therapeutic properties of  herbs, flowers or other plants. Among others you can find oils infused with calendula, lavender, rosemary, green tea, etc. All sorts of oils can be used for this purpose, but most often olive oil is used (due to its low price and long shelf life). Often you will also find macerated oils based on jojoba oil or sweet almond oil. All plants used for oil maceration should be grown organically (to avoid pesticides in your final product) and preferably used in a dried form (to avoid growth of mold).

Macerated oils can be purchased or prepared in a simple way at home. 

Oil maceration can be carried out in two ways: cold pressing or hot process. The cold pressing process usually takes from 2-3 weeks of time. The hot process is much faster and only several hours are needed. You will need to place the plant of your choice in a jar, fill it up with oil and secure it with a tight fitting lid. In a cold pressing process you just place this jar in a warm, sunny place and every other day or so shake it to make sure the oil infusion occurs in an efficient way. For a hot process place your jar in a pot of water (double boiler) and heat up for several hours. Make sure that the temperature is not too high. You should not go over 60 - 70 ° C. If the macerated oil is prepared in a proper way its shelf-life should be as long as the shelf-life of the used oil so usually between 6-12 months. 

One of the important questions is why make macerated oils when there are essential oils and hydrosols? 

Not all therapeutical properties of a given plant can be found in an essential oil or in a hydrosol. In the process of preparing essential oils only the small molecules of the plant are captured. In a hydrosol only water soluble compounds are present. Therefore by preparing infused oils we are able to capture larger, non-water soluble molecules, which would otherwise not be retrieved from a plant. 

 Preparation of macerated oil infused with a mixture of dried flowers (in olive oil)