Oregano oil is one of the most widely respected and commonly used herbal medicines. For those who prefer natural medicine, oregano oil has been a go-to cure for colds, flu, and everyday infections.
It has antiseptic, antioxidant, antibacterial, antimicrobial, antifungal, and anti-inflammatory properties. Oregano oil has successfully been shown to fight everything from common flu to fleas, from candida yeast to gut parasites. It’s not just another hippie fix – it’s totally legit. The ancient Romans and Greeks know this.
Buying Premade or Making Oregano Oil at Home?
The only caveat is that oregano oil can be pricey since it’s usually sold as an essential oil. And if you’re a health-conscious individual, you already know that a certified organic, high-quality, potent essential oil can be expensive. Some can cost upwards of $30 per small 15mL bottle. Sure, it can last you a long time since you only need a drop or two at a time, but when you run out, it’s always a bit painful to pick up another bottle from the store.
If you make oregano oil at home, your cost might be a bit lower as compared to buying it from a market. Let’s first evaluate the aspect of making oregano oil at home.
Making Oregano Oil at Home
To make a good oregano oil at home, you will need:
- A large bunch of fresh oregano – This is your main ingredient.
- Extra virgin olive oil – This is the most suitable base for oregano oil because it doesn’t have an odor that will clash with the strong oregano scent. Grapeseed oil and almond oil can work great as well.
- Two sanitized glass jars with a twist lid, or canning jars – This is where you will store your oil to keep it fresh. Make sure to sterilize it first before use.
- A dark-colored glass dropper bottle – This will hold the ready-to-use finished product. The dark-colored glass will help keep the essential oil fresher for a long time. The dropper attached to the lid makes it ideal for easier use. It’s best to use a new bottle, not a recycled bottle that once contained another essential oil. Cleaning a small, used essential oil bottle and removing all its residue can be difficult.
- A muddler – This will be used for crushing the oregano leaves. If you don’t have a muddler, a mortar and pestle will do.
- Saucepan or boiler with water – This will be used for heating the oil indirectly.
- Cheesecloth – A clean cheesecloth is an ideal strainer, but a coffee filter can also be used in place if it’s not available.
Procedure:
- Carefully wash the fresh oregano with water. Make sure the oregano is free from dirt and debris. Pat it dry using a clean towel. You don’t want any moisture on it since it can cause bacteria to breed in the olive oil. For best results, let it sit out after drying with a towel to further air dry. Set aside.
- Boil water in a saucepan. Let it reach a boil, then turn off the flame.
- Remove the oregano leaves from the stems and add them to the sterilized jar. If you want to use the stems, cut them up into pieces using scissors to help them macerate in the olive oil.
- Using a muddler, crush, and bruise the leaves. You want to get them smooshed so the cell walls of the plant will burst, and the oregano will release its natural oils. Notice that it will shrink down a lot as you crush them.
- Once the oregano leaves are well-muddled, pour over the olive oil to submerge them all.
- Stir well to make sure everything is coated with oil. Ensure that the crushed oregano is under the surface of the oil. Secure the jar with the lid.
- Place the jar into hot water and allow it to sit for 5-10 minutes. This will heat up the oil and further allow the oregano to release its natural oils.
- Let the oil infuse for two weeks in the jar. Keep it in a cool place away from direct sunlight. Give it a shake every few days. The oil will slowly darken into a dark, greenish-brown color, and it will smell strongly of oregano.
- After two weeks, use a cheesecloth or a coffee filter to strain and remove the remaining leaf particles from the oil. Strain it to another sterilized jar.
Storage
You may want to put a little oil on a glass dropper bottle and keep it in your medicine cabinet. For the rest, keep it in the jar and store it in your fridge to keep it fresh. Oregano oil stored in the refrigerator can last up to a year. Out of the fridge, the oil will last a few months. When it’s not good anymore, the olive oil will start to smell rancid like old crayons.
Benefits of Making Oregano Oil at Home
There are several ways in which it becomes beneficial to make oregano oil at home and not buy it from a company.
Might be Cheaper
Making oregano oil at home could be cheaper (or could be not). There are several reasons for that. Primarily, when making it at home, you might be buying ingredients in a smaller quantity. The final quantity of oil will be quite less. This means that the cost of purchasing these items would be higher. We all know that buying in larger and bulk quantities is generally cheaper but when you buy in smaller quantities, it may get expensive.
However, this can be solved as well if you carefully evaluate the ingredients and get the most economical ones. In addition to that, making oregano oil at home could be cheaper because you are not going to add up any profit margins as the companies do. You will also not be having excessive costs because you don’t have to pay wages, extra utility bills, and several other costs as well.
Can Use Your Own Choice of Carrier Oil
There is a chance that when you get the oregano oil from the market, it has been diffused with its own carrier oil. However, when making it at home, you have the complete choice of choosing the carrier oil. After preparing oregano oil at home, you can mix it with either of the following: Peppermint, Lavender, Basil, Rosemary, Bergamot, Cypress, Cedarwood. Having a choice is a benefit of making oregano oil at home compared to getting it from a market.
Some people like their oils to be very thick while others want the oil to be mild. Furthermore, certain people also want their oils to be very dilute. Getting such flexibility and choice is not possible when you are buying oregano oil from the market. You can only do this when you make it yourself.
Drawbacks of Making Oregano Oil at Home
While it is good to have the choice and save a few bucks on the oregano oil by making it at home, certain drawbacks cannot be ignored.
Making it Right is Difficult
The main disadvantage of making oregano oil at home is that there are chances that you might not make it correctly, especially the first time. This is because you are no expert in it and there are always chances of making different types of errors. Such a problem is not faced when you buy it from a company because they have been making it for a long time and are experts in what they do. You may eventually end up making oregano oil at home perfectly, but it may require a lot of time before you achieve that level of perfection.
Ultimately, this overcomes the possible benefits of making oregano oil at home as well. Why? Because as you make a mistake, you are wasting the ingredients and possibly making it more expensive as compared to the oregano oil that you could have purchased from outside. In addition to that, some people may also have problems in customizing the oil as per their liking properly. For example, adding too much carrier oil will diminish the properties of oregano oil.
Now, let’s move on to the aspect of buying pre-made oregano oil.
Buying Premade Oregano Oil
Premade oregano oil means that you simply buy it off the shelf from a market. Getting a bottle of oregano oil has become quite easy these days because there are several options available over Amazon.com that you can try out. We have recommended 2 of the best ones below. Let’s first evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of buying premade oregano oil.
Benefits of Buying Premade Oregano Oil
There are many reasons why buying oregano oil from the market will suit you better.
Convenience
Let’s be honest. Why try to make the oregano oil at home when it costs less than $20 from a company. One of these bottles is about 60ml and has a dropper that would easily provide you with about 200 to 250 drops. Even if you use 5 drops a day, it will take a minimum of 2 months for the oil to finish. Spending $20 every 2 months does not sound like a bad deal. Therefore, the element of the convenience of getting premade oil without any hassle of buying ingredients and making one at home is an important benefit of buying premade oregano oil.
Lab Testing and Standards
Oregano oil, or any other oil, is usually tested from a number of labs before it is sold by a company in the market. These lab tests not only prove their authenticity but also tell whether these oils work or not. Moreover, they assure the safety of their usage as well. The lab tests also help in the improvement of a product such that it performs in the most optimal manner. Such lab tests, verifications, and high-quality oregano oil is not going to be possible if you are making one at home. It will only be possible if you buy it from a company.
Drawbacks of Buying Oregano Oil
It gives you convenience and some assurity about the lab testing and standards, but at what cost? Let’s find out.
High Price
Oregano oil will not always cost you $20. Some companies charge a hefty amount for oregano oil. Besides, you have to spend a few extra bucks on getting a carrier oil as well if you are getting a completely undiluted form of oregano oil. Nonetheless, if you try to find out, such as the options given below, you can always find a good oregano oil for a cheap price.
Allergic Reactions
While most of the oregano oils do not cause any allergic reactions, some might do and this could be because the company has been using different types of chemical additives when preparing the oregano oil. These could cause an allergic reaction on the skin such as red marks, rashes, or itching as well. The chances of such an incident are not very high but still, one should be careful when purchasing oregano oil.
Get the Best Oregano Oils
Now that you are aware of the differences between making oregano oil at home and buying a premade oregano oil, we recommend the following oregano oil products that can be purchased easily from amazon.com. Don’t worry! Both of them are safe and have been used by thousands of customers.
Conclusion
Premade oregano oils have their own set of benefits and drawbacks just like making oregano oil at home. It is up to you which one to choose. If you have a lot of free time and want to try making one at home, you surely can but if you want more convenience, buy online.