Easy Lemon Myrtle Bush Medicine To Make At Home

WORD BY DOM LIVKAMAL

We love lemon myrtle as it smells incredible…like a citrus lemony zing, that’s so fresh and awakening. Let’s make some easy bush medicine today and enjoy this aromatherapeutic plant at home! The Australian native tree Backhousia citriodora grows so well in South East Queensland. I had the privilege of visiting Lyndell’s Chemical Free Farm in Palmwoods, where she has 60 tress growing and we were talking about the beauty of lemon myrtle and how you can use it at home. Today I want to share with you this recipe for lemon myrtle oil you can make at home and use in the kitchen or on your body.

Lemon Myrtle Oil Recipe

Take a big handful of fresh lemon myrtle leaves and crush gently with your hands so that the volatile oils start to be released. Now place in a big jar and top up with your favourite oil. Today we used olive oil. Allow to sit and marinate for two weeks to two months. Then when you think it’s ready, simply strain /filter the leaves and make sure you get all the liquid out of the leaves. You are now left with a beautiful aroma filled bottle of oil. Use the oil in cooking, salad dressings, stir fries or massage oil/body oil. The smell is fresh and citrusy, the oil is nourishing and delicious. Traditionally using the oil on your skin helps reduce blemishes, cold sores, acne and helps heal any small infections on the skin as well as protecting the skin from getting infections, so you can pop it on small cuts and grazes to help reduce risk factors for infection. It’s also a natural deodorant.

Using the oil in your cooking adds a delicious citrus flavour as well as having some health benefits (protecting your body from colds and flus). Add some leaves to the BBQ and smoke your foods in the aroma! As a medicine, we use lemon myrtle to help with weight loss, detoxification, circulation, inflammatory pain, for coughs, colds and flus and to ease sore throats. And we have it in our upper respiratory tract formulas to help eliminate excess mucous from the body. It’s well known as a bush medicine in traditional cultural healing.

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