Sea buckthorn oil occupies a worthy place in any first-aid kit, as it can be used to treat wounds and suppurations, colds and even diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, sea buckthorn oil is an excellent cosmetic product that is suitable for any skin type and helps fight its premature aging. However, if you buy oil in finished form, then there is no guarantee that you will get an environmentally friendly and safe for health product. Therefore, if you have such an opportunity, it is best to prepare sea buckthorn oil on your own, at home.
Cooking sea buckthorn oil at home
Recipe 1
To do this, you need the fresh and fairly mature fruits of this healing tree, which should be soft, but in no case rotted. They must be carefully separated from the twigs and rinsed thoroughly in running water. There are a lot of recipes for cooking sea buckthorn oil, and the simplest of them is to use fruit juice, which can be pressed in any available way. However, in order to preserve its useful properties as much as possible, it is not necessary to allow the contact of raw materials with metal objects. Because of this, the juice may oxidize, which will affect not only the taste, but also the composition of the finished product. Pressed juice should be poured into plastic or enameled ware, which should be quite wide and shallow. Ideally, the juice should cover the bottom of the bowl or saucepans no more than 5-6 cm. Then the dishes with the juice should be put in a dark cool place for a day, during which the raw materials will be stratified into several components. The oil, which is lighter, will be on the surface and will be a clear, bright liquid that needs to be carefully collected with a teaspoon and poured into a dark glass vial. Additional heat treatment, which is resorted to in industrial conditions, such oil does not require. However, it should be remembered that it should be stored in the refrigerator and used within 5-6 months, otherwise the product will lose its useful properties. This recipe is the simplest and allows you to get high-quality sea buckthorn oil. True, getting it this way is advisable only if you have a fairly large amount of sea buckthorn. From 1 kg of berries usually comes out no more than 50 ml of oil, so this recipe is very expensive. Recipe 2
In order to save, you can use another option, which will require not only fresh sea buckthorn berries, but also any refined vegetable oil. It is best to give preference to olive, which has a very delicate texture, almost devoid of smell and taste. Approximately 0, 5 kg of fresh berries should be thoroughly rinsed, and then spread out on a baking sheet and lightly dried in the oven on the weakest fire. As a result, the berries should become hard and dense, but it should not be allowed to burn. When the sea buckthorn cools down, it must be ground to a state of flour. It is best to do this with a regular coffee grinder. In the end, should get about 2/3 half-liter cans of brownish powder, which you need to pour 200 ml of vegetable oil heated to + 50-60 degrees. The resulting mixture should be placed in a dark and warm enough place for 1 week. During this time, the oil will be enriched with beneficial substances and vitamins contained in sea buckthorn. However, please note that the concentration of the product will be at least 15%. Of course, this oil can be used both for medicinal and cosmetic purposes, but the effect of its use will be lower. However, if you want to increase the concentration of the obtained product, it should be drained through several layers of gauze, and then mixed again with the powder obtained from sea-buckthorn berries. As a result, the concentration of oil will increase to 30-35%. Recipe 3
If the berries are quite small, you can resort to using another recipe, resulting in 50% sea buckthorn oil, suitable for outdoor and indoor use. For these purposes, 2 glasses of fresh sea-buckthorn berries should be thoroughly washed and put in a freezer for 3-4 days. Then they must be carefully defrosted first by transferring to the refrigerator, and then transferred to the room. This is desired so that the sea buckthorn becomes very soft, but at the same time it does not let the juice out before it. The berries prepared in this way are rubbed with a wooden or plastic spoon. The resulting juice should be squeezed out, and the cake should be dried in the oven and grind in a coffee grinder to a state of flour. Then you need to mix the juice and vegetable oil in equal proportions, add to the resulting mass of crushed meal, after which it must be kept on the steam bath for at least 3 hours. Next, the mixture must be cooled and for 4-5 days put in a dark place, not pouring from the pan. As a result, a rather thick layer of oil is formed on the surface, which must be carefully collected, poured into a dark glass bottle and stored in a refrigerator.
