I don’t think I have been without Calendula ointment in my medicine chest since my babies were little. It was my go-to for nappy rash, and then for heat rash, gravel rash, the rash you get when your billycart has no brakes and bladey grass lives up to its name.
It was the “magic cream” used for any minor cut or bite that required slightly more than sympathy, and then for bites I told you not to scratch, and then for arms and legs scratched up by lantana before fully appreciating the benefits of long sleeves and pants for after-school lantana clearing work.
It was the solution to grazed knees and chafed thighs and lucky you were wearing a bike helmet because that could have been much worse than a badly scratched chin.
So it’s good to know that it was doing much more than placebo. There’s some good evidence backing up the traditional uses of calendula for combatting infection and inflammation, and stimulating the production of collagen and the healing process for unwanted openings in skin. The evidence is a bit mixed for chronic wounds like ulcers but pretty clear for acute wounds like grazes, rashes, cuts and abrasions.
There’s also decent evidence that calendula skin cream is good for older people, past the age of racing a billycart down the hill, with sun damaged, aging, fragile skin that tears way too easily, which is me these days.
The easiest way to have calendula in the medicine chest is in the form of infused oil. It will last pretty well indefinitely like this in a cool dark place, and the oil can be used directly, as is, or to make a salve, cream, lotion, ointment or soap. To make an infused oil, you just fill a sterile jar with dried calendula flowers, cover with oil, and let it infuse for a couple of months. Keep it out of direct sun, and give the jar a shake every so often. Strain the flowers out and you are left with a deep yellow oil with all the medicinal properties of calendula.
Calendula officinalis, Family Asteraceae, Calendula or Pot Marigold
(Not to be confused with Tagetes patula or French marigold, or any of the other Tagetes.)
Calendula is very easy to grow, and besides its medicinal uses, its a good source of nectar to attract pollinators and predators like hoverflies and lacewings, and it makes a nice cut flower, and its edible (though I’ve only ever used its lovely golden petals as a decorative garnish or flower salad ingredient). It’s a low bush, 30 to 40 cm tall and about the same wide. It likes full sun but will cope with a bit of shade, and any garden soil. If you cut the flowers regularly, it will produce them prolifically.
Traditionally it’s planted from seed in spring, but in my subtropical climate it doesn’t cope well with the summer heat and it’s better planted in autumn to flower in winter and spring. Slugs like seedlings, and aphids like it, so I find it’s a good plant for big pots. (It has a reputation as a trap crop for aphids).
Most of the medicinal use research I found by following links from Phytochemistry and Biological Activity of Medicinal Plants in Wound Healing: An Overview of Current Research and Calendula officinalis and Wound Healing: A Systematic Review
We talk about food security but not so much about medicine security. This is a series about the plants with a good evidence base for medicinal use. They all have garden ecosystem and culinary uses too, so worth growing anyhow, and having them in the growing close at hand might give you a small measure of security in the wild west of late capitalism. You will find the rest of this series by clicking the tag Medicinals
I use dried calendula and cornflower petals to use in my soap making.
Not exactly medicinal, but pretty!
Might be medicinal. I haven’t had a good dig to see how the active components of calendula fare in the chemistry of soap. But I’m planning to make some calendula oil for my soap this year, just for the pretty anyhow!