Amish Black Drawing Salve Recipe With Activated Charcoal (2024)

Use this Amish black drawing salve on cuts, scrapes, splinters, and boils to naturally pull toxins and debris from the skin.

I am so excited to bring you this recipe because it was a few years in the making. We used to buy a great drawing salve, but we can't find it anywhere anymore. We tried a few other brands, but they didn't work as well as the original one.

I found a few recipes for Amish Black Drawing Salve, and they were all close to what we like. I took the best of each recipe, combined them, and came up with this Amish black drawing salve recipe.

This recipe shouldn't be confused with a black salve recipe. A true black salve can burn the skin, but this salve is safe.

It's made with mild ingredients that won't cause irritation.

Drawing salves pull from your skin, so they are great for bee stings and splinters. They also help with infections, so many people use them on boils, wounds, and cystic acne.

Last week, my son and I were at Cub Scout day camp. It was so hot--the "feels like" temp was 105!--so of course the kids were standing right next to a building for the shade. My son rubbed his arm on the wood and got several long, deep splinters.

I took him to first aid, where I found an ER nurse. She said they were so deep that she would numb the area before trying to extract them if he were in the ER.

She said he was fine to keep playing once we got it cleaned up, so she pulled out what she could and put some antibiotic cream and a bandage on it. I brought him home, and the splinters were so deep that we would have had to use a needle to extract them.

I put a thick layer of this salve on him and a large 4x4 bandage on him so it wouldn't leak. I was shocked the next day that I could pull out several more. There are still some that are fairly deep, but they are coming to the surface.

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Infusing Oils for Amish Black Drawing Salve Recipe

Before you can make the recipe, you'll want to infuse the olive oil. I used comfrey, plantain, and calendula for the benefits (see below). You can skip this, but I don't recommend it.

These herbs are a little hard to find in stores, but I will link you to a few stores that sell them.

I found a great Amish greenhouse that specializes in herbs and herbal remedies a few weeks ago, and they helped me pick the best herbs.

There are two ways to infuse oils. You can pour the oil in to a jar and place the herbs inside and set in a warm place for a few weeks. Give it a good shake or stir every day, and strain after two weeks.

I didn't want to wait that long, so I placed the jar in my crockpot filled with a few inches of water. I heated it on low for four hours and turned off the heat. The next day, I strained out the herbs.

If you don't want to infuse the oils, you can buy already infused oils. Calendula oil and comfrey oil are easier to find, and you'd be fine to use just those two oils if you can't find plantain infused oil. Just use the same amount of oil and mix them about 1:1 (or 1:1:1 if you use all three).

• Find calendula infused oil at Mountain Rose Herbs.
• Find comfrey infused oil at Mountain Rose Herbs.
• Find plantain infused oil at Mountain Rose Herbs.

Learn more about how to use herbs in DIY recipes in the Herbal Academy's Botanical Skin Care Course.

Amish Black Drawing Salve Ingredients and How They Work

I'm going to link to both Mountain Rose Herbs and Starwest Botanicals. Both have high quality products. Starwest does offer free shipping, but Mountain Rose Herbs has lower prices.

Comfrey - An anti-inflammatory herb that can help wounds heal quicker. (Get it from Starwest Botanicals. or Mountain Rose Herbs)

Plaintain - An herb that has natural anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. (Get it from Starwest Botanicalsor Mountain Rose Herbs) Learn more about plantain leaf benefits for skin.

Calendula - Promotes collagen production to speed up healing. (Get it from Starwest Botanicalsor or Mountain Rose Herbs.)

Olive oil - Full of antioxidants and vitamin E. (Get it from Mountain Rose Herbs or Starwest Botanicals.)

Beeswax - Acts as a barrier trapping the healing ingredients next to your skin and thickens the oils. (Get it from or Mountain Rose Herbsor Starwest Botanicals.)

Vitamin E oil - An extra dose of this skin-loving vitamin. (Get it from Mountain Rose Herbsor Starwest Botanicals.)

Tea tree oil - Naturally anti-bacterial. (Get it from or Mountain Rose Herbs orSimply Earth)

Honey - Naturally anti-bacterial and moisturizing. (Get it from iHerb.)

Charcoal - Pulls bacteria and toxins and traps them. (Get it from iHerbor Starwest Botanicals.)

Bentonite clay - Draws toxins and chemicals out of your skin. Be sure to not use metal utensils with it or it won't work. (Get it from or Mountain Rose Herbsor Starwest Botanicals.)

Just a word of caution though, you'll want to cover the area with a bandage because the charcoal gets on everything. It cleans up fairly easily from your skin, but I can't say how well it comes off of fabric.

Ingredients

Do not use metal utensils with bentonite clay.