Nature has so much to offer and yet we humans seem to have stopped believing in natural remedies. Instead, we get swayed by the fancy packaging, fleeting fragrances, and the attractive product colors that bombard our senses in this consumer era. If only we take a moment to go through the ingredients in the products that we buy, surely, any sane person would balk before applying it on his/her own body? Starting from petrochemicals, synthetic parfums, artificial colors, preservatives, emulsifiers and what not - so many chemicals are concocted into the fancy products that have now become a household must-have!
Of the many such products, cold rub is one essential where almost every house buys and stocks a well-known vapour rub in the hopes that it will help them fight the cold, cough and infections usually associated with the cold weather. Whether or not those products work is irrelevant - just take a look at what goes into making them before you continue to buy/use it. When there is a wonderful, far more effective home remedy straight from nature's basket, why would you even want to spend the money to buy the chemical-laden rubs from the market? Not to mention the contribution to the plastic waste that you will inevitably end up generating!
Let's look at how you can easily make a simple but highly effective cold rub - with just 2 - 3 ingredients with a few other variations with additional/different ingredients.
All Natural Cold Rub
Ingredients required:
Cold pressed/Organic Coconut oil - 100 ml
Beeswax pieces/scrap - 10 - 15 grams
Edible Camphor (Beemsen Karpoor/Pacha Karpooram) - 5-10 grams, powdered
Method of preparation:1. Powder the Edible Camphor well with a rolling pin/mortar and pestle.
2. Mix it well into the Coconut oil, cover and keep aside in a container for a day.
3. The next day, set up a double boiler heating system - i.e. take a smaller container in which you plan to mix up the ingredients and immerse it in a bigger container filled quarter way with water. Make sure the water level is well below the halfway mark of the smaller container so that any water that boils/jumps off doesn't fall into the bigger container.
4. First, mildly heat up the coconut oil-edible camphor mix on the double boiler until any remaining camphor melts into the Coconut oil completely. Do not overheat or heat for more than 3-5 minutes as camphor will evaporate on heating. Heat it just enough.
5. Then, gather the beeswax pieces into the empty container (the smaller container in the double boiler system) in which you intend to make the Cold rub, and heat it up until the beeswax melts completely. Lower the flame.
6. Add the mildly heated Coconut oil-Edible camphor mix to the Beeswax and stir it in well. Make sure all camphor has dissolved well into the mixture.
7. Take off flame and transfer to capped bottle/container you intend to store it in. Make sure it's not plastic if possible.
8. Wait for it to solidify to a creamy texture. Your cold rub is ready! Try it out :) You can store and use it for upto six months.
From experience, I can tell you that it works very well in mobilizing all the phlegm and relieving blocked noses. But if you ask me, is it a wonder drug that will cure a cold overnight, well, you got to be kidding me :) Any cold needs to run its natural course of 2 - 3 days for your body to cope and naturally fight with its immunity. Let that happen while you use the cold rub to give you relief to breathe easily and get rid of the mucus as much as possible helping your body in the process.
Though this recipe is completely safe for babies and children as well, for very young ones, I would suggest you reduce the edible camphor to just 5% so that their sensitive skin does not burn. Also, you can test it by first applying only on their soles (and covering with socks) and see if it helps them before using on their chest/back. Do not however put it on their nose/under the nose.
Of course, this is a very old and traditional home remedy - we are only giving it a modern twist by using Beeswax so that it's not all oily spoiling our clothes. If you don't have Beeswax or ccan'tbother to buy it, you can always use just the Coconut oil-Edible Camphor mix alone and use it just as you would the rub. While Beeswax has its own healing properties, here we are mainly using it to give a nice, familiar texture of a vapor rub which we have got used to in recent years.
Now, there are of course other variations you can do to this recipe - to make it more effective (perhaps, if this one doesn't seem to work for you), or make it smell better/different, etc. Let's look at a few of them below quickly:
Variation 1: Use Menthol, Thymol, and Eucalyptus Oil along with Edible Camphor. Menthol and Thymol are plant-derived extracts from peppermint/other mint and thyme plants though there are also synthetically produced variants of Thymol and Menthol. If making this variation, ensure not to cross 5% of the quantity of Coconut oil. i.e. don't use more than 5 (or max 8-10) grams of all Menthol, Thymol + Camphor combined. You can use up to 10 drops of Eucalyptus oil. Thymol is called oma uppu and Menthol is called Pudina uppu (in Tamil) and you can get it in herbal medicine/pooja stores.
Variation 2: You can also make a cold rub using only essential oils (EO) and skipping the Edible Camphor. Follow the same recipe and add the following essential oils once the Coconut oil and Beeswax are melted and well combined and taken off heat (but before you transfer to storage container). Add 20 drops of Eucalyptus EO, 15-20 drops of Peppermint EO, and 15-20 drops of Lavender EO. Optionally 10-15 drops of Lemon EO as well. Combine well into the Oil-Beeswax mix before transferring to the storage container.
If you are using Essential Oils, its always better to use lesser quantity to be on the safe side as they are really concentrated and can do more harm than good if used in excess. So, please exercise caution and always do a patch test before using full-fledged. Also, pls buy from a reliable brand. Moksha Lifestyle and Falcon Essential Oils are two brands I trust and source from.
Most importantly, DO NOT use the ordinary camphor - these days, the ordinary camphor that we use in religious practices is highly contaminated and some even say its made of plastic and not natural at all. So, please avoid that at all cost. Use only edible camphor from a reliable source.
If you have a better recipe or an effective time tested remedy for dealing with cold and cough, please do share for the benefit of all.
Of the many such products, cold rub is one essential where almost every house buys and stocks a well-known vapour rub in the hopes that it will help them fight the cold, cough and infections usually associated with the cold weather. Whether or not those products work is irrelevant - just take a look at what goes into making them before you continue to buy/use it. When there is a wonderful, far more effective home remedy straight from nature's basket, why would you even want to spend the money to buy the chemical-laden rubs from the market? Not to mention the contribution to the plastic waste that you will inevitably end up generating!
Let's look at how you can easily make a simple but highly effective cold rub - with just 2 - 3 ingredients with a few other variations with additional/different ingredients.
All Natural Cold Rub
Ingredients required:
Cold pressed/Organic Coconut oil - 100 ml
Beeswax pieces/scrap - 10 - 15 grams
Edible Camphor (Beemsen Karpoor/Pacha Karpooram) - 5-10 grams, powdered
Method of preparation:1. Powder the Edible Camphor well with a rolling pin/mortar and pestle.
2. Mix it well into the Coconut oil, cover and keep aside in a container for a day.
3. The next day, set up a double boiler heating system - i.e. take a smaller container in which you plan to mix up the ingredients and immerse it in a bigger container filled quarter way with water. Make sure the water level is well below the halfway mark of the smaller container so that any water that boils/jumps off doesn't fall into the bigger container.
4. First, mildly heat up the coconut oil-edible camphor mix on the double boiler until any remaining camphor melts into the Coconut oil completely. Do not overheat or heat for more than 3-5 minutes as camphor will evaporate on heating. Heat it just enough.
5. Then, gather the beeswax pieces into the empty container (the smaller container in the double boiler system) in which you intend to make the Cold rub, and heat it up until the beeswax melts completely. Lower the flame.
6. Add the mildly heated Coconut oil-Edible camphor mix to the Beeswax and stir it in well. Make sure all camphor has dissolved well into the mixture.
7. Take off flame and transfer to capped bottle/container you intend to store it in. Make sure it's not plastic if possible.
8. Wait for it to solidify to a creamy texture. Your cold rub is ready! Try it out :) You can store and use it for upto six months.
From experience, I can tell you that it works very well in mobilizing all the phlegm and relieving blocked noses. But if you ask me, is it a wonder drug that will cure a cold overnight, well, you got to be kidding me :) Any cold needs to run its natural course of 2 - 3 days for your body to cope and naturally fight with its immunity. Let that happen while you use the cold rub to give you relief to breathe easily and get rid of the mucus as much as possible helping your body in the process.
Though this recipe is completely safe for babies and children as well, for very young ones, I would suggest you reduce the edible camphor to just 5% so that their sensitive skin does not burn. Also, you can test it by first applying only on their soles (and covering with socks) and see if it helps them before using on their chest/back. Do not however put it on their nose/under the nose.
Of course, this is a very old and traditional home remedy - we are only giving it a modern twist by using Beeswax so that it's not all oily spoiling our clothes. If you don't have Beeswax or ccan'tbother to buy it, you can always use just the Coconut oil-Edible Camphor mix alone and use it just as you would the rub. While Beeswax has its own healing properties, here we are mainly using it to give a nice, familiar texture of a vapor rub which we have got used to in recent years.
Now, there are of course other variations you can do to this recipe - to make it more effective (perhaps, if this one doesn't seem to work for you), or make it smell better/different, etc. Let's look at a few of them below quickly:
Variation 1: Use Menthol, Thymol, and Eucalyptus Oil along with Edible Camphor. Menthol and Thymol are plant-derived extracts from peppermint/other mint and thyme plants though there are also synthetically produced variants of Thymol and Menthol. If making this variation, ensure not to cross 5% of the quantity of Coconut oil. i.e. don't use more than 5 (or max 8-10) grams of all Menthol, Thymol + Camphor combined. You can use up to 10 drops of Eucalyptus oil. Thymol is called oma uppu and Menthol is called Pudina uppu (in Tamil) and you can get it in herbal medicine/pooja stores.
Variation 2: You can also make a cold rub using only essential oils (EO) and skipping the Edible Camphor. Follow the same recipe and add the following essential oils once the Coconut oil and Beeswax are melted and well combined and taken off heat (but before you transfer to storage container). Add 20 drops of Eucalyptus EO, 15-20 drops of Peppermint EO, and 15-20 drops of Lavender EO. Optionally 10-15 drops of Lemon EO as well. Combine well into the Oil-Beeswax mix before transferring to the storage container.
If you are using Essential Oils, its always better to use lesser quantity to be on the safe side as they are really concentrated and can do more harm than good if used in excess. So, please exercise caution and always do a patch test before using full-fledged. Also, pls buy from a reliable brand. Moksha Lifestyle and Falcon Essential Oils are two brands I trust and source from.
Most importantly, DO NOT use the ordinary camphor - these days, the ordinary camphor that we use in religious practices is highly contaminated and some even say its made of plastic and not natural at all. So, please avoid that at all cost. Use only edible camphor from a reliable source.
If you have a better recipe or an effective time tested remedy for dealing with cold and cough, please do share for the benefit of all.
1 Comments
I wish I could post a pic with the colour therapy points on palms. I tried the following method last weekend and the following is the comment I sent to the lady who told me about it. It is truly miraculous!
ReplyDeleteOver the weekend I had bad cold and fever which refused to subside with Crocin. I applied mustard oil on my navel and tummy, put a wet cloth on it, covered with a plastic and put a blanket on it, put a wet cloth on my eyes. I did change the wet cloth(it got really hot) and lay down longer than the recommended half hour.
I still cannot believe that the fever went away AND my nose drained off completely😁
I had to do followup but actually experiencing this was like a miracle.