How to Recycle Once Soaked Herbs

Hello! I have made an herbal oil: Tulsi, Ashwagandha and Calendula! Its been about 3 weeks and so today i strained the herb from the oil and thought, "dang, there's still a lot of medicine in these herbs." So I am here to ask if anyone has any ideas on how I could reuse the herbs that have already soaked in oil for 3 weeks.
Im open to any and all straightforward to totally out of the box ideas!
Thank you,
Iz

Izzy Blasucci wrote:Hello! I have made an herbal oil: Tulsi, Ashwagandha and Calendula! Its been about 3 weeks and so today i strained the herb from the oil and thought, "dang, there's still a lot of medicine in these herbs." So I am here to ask if anyone has any ideas on how I could reuse the herbs that have already soaked in oil for 3 weeks.
Im open to any and all straightforward to totally out of the box ideas!
Thank you,
Iz

That sounds like a wonderful mix.  I wonder if you could somehow blend the pulp fine, pack it in a jar and refrigerate to use for skin things? What type of oil and what do you use the oil for? I love both tulsi and ashwagandha as tea but have never made an oil with them.
I do make a calendula petal oil and leave them in the oil unless I use it for a salve and then strain them out.

EDIT: I just remembered that I did save the mash from a usnea tincture.  It had been such a long process all together that I couldn't stand to throw in the compost.  It is in a tiny jar in the refrigerator in case we ever need 'wound care'.

Great question and one I have wondered about too!
Depending on the herbs, I have played with a couple ideas so far. With plantain and comfrey, I have set the strained herbs in the fridge to use later as a poultice for bug bites and such. Maybe a face mask could be another option?
When I strained my rose petal infused oil, I ground up the leftover petals in my food processor and mixed them with some Epsom salt, a bit more oil and some honey to make a really luxurious salt scrub. Really nice after working outside to get rid of the sweaty, grimy feels.

After you strain the herbs in a cloth to extract the infused oil,
You can keep them inside the cloth in a freezer and use them later as a cold compress.
The calendula is great for skin conditions and inflammations.

   Wow thank you for the recommendations you all !
   Judith, I used sesame for the menstrum and i will use the medicated oil for abhyanga, which is a fancy sanskrit term for "self- massage". I am studying Ayurveda and a lovely new practice i have picked up is massaging my whole body with oil, then showering without soap, just a few minutes in warm water (outdoor shower recommended) and lightly toweling off. Sesame absorbs into the skin, the pulls toxins back to the surface. In this way, most of the oil still remains, hydrating and cleansing the skin, but the outermost layer of oil that has pulled the toxins to the surface has been washed off.
    Ashwagandha is known for its grounding quality, and as a root it has the ability to support that airy, scattered and overactive mind that might come and disturb sleep at night. So i might use this oil on my feet, temples and solar plexus before bed or just in moments of high anxiety/wind in the mind. Tulsi is incredibly Sattvic (pure, clear, expansive) and in this way I thought to blend it with ashwagandha to balance the rootedness with some sweet, light, but also calming energetics. Also, these are three herbs that grow on the farm I am currently apprenticing at so it just felt fun to make a nice oil with them!

Oo also Olivia a scrub sounds like a wonderful idea...i don't have any epsom salts here currently but that would be a good investment...

I've just heard of.this approach to herbal medicine called "spagyrics". There's a gentleman named Phoenix Aurelius that runs a research center and apothecary based in the philosophy. In explaining the type of medicines he makes he talked about doing the extraction, then burning the strained off plant matter, then  doing a special water based purification of that ash (which I didn't follow because it's just above my level of experience and I wasn't paying close attention) and adding the purified ash back to the extraction .

He's an interesting fellow, its a really interesting and wholistic approach to herbal medicines, and you might find another way to recycle your plant material.

Thanks S. lowe, I actually recently had the pleasure of using a Rose Spagyric..definitely beyond my scope of medicine making at this time but its so fascinating. Real alchemical and mystical medicine!