Readers have flagged, correctly, that isopropyl "rubbing alcohol" is not the ideal solvent for a topical preparation. Grain alcohol at 70–75% is more skin-compatible and less drying. Same solvent action on the resin and alkaloids.
Kloss's 1939 text specifies "rubbing alcohol (70 percent)" without naming the alcohol. In 1939 that phrase covered both ethanol and isopropyl formulations. Isopropyl became the default "rubbing alcohol" over the following decades on cost, after Standard Oil commercialized it in 1920 as a refining byproduct. His original readers may well have used ethanol.
The essay is updated. The recipe now specifies grain alcohol at 70–75% (Everclear 151 works directly; higher-proof grain alcohol diluted with distilled water also works). Marion Farms and Organic Alcohol Company are the standard sources for organic grain alcohol.
For the reader who hit $100 goldenseal on Amazon: Kloss himself added a note to the recipe that if goldenseal is not available, make the liniment without it. The two-ingredient version (myrrh and cayenne in grain alcohol) is field-workable. He anticipated the shortage sixty years before international treaty ratified it.
Great mixture EXCEPT for the rubbing alcohol -- very drying and damaging to skin. I wouldn't use ethanol either, which is also toxic to the skin. Better to use something else, like DMSO, as the eluting ingredient, perhaps diluted to 30% or so with water or physiologic saline. Even better, mix in some coconut oil.
I love the idea of trying the recipe in DMSO. I have used it many times made with ethanol for poison oak and the drying is helpful during the weepy stages of the malady. I think DMSO would be even better and with less damage.
Always keep in mind that you don't want to stop the normal healing processes but only help them along. At times that might include gently controlling excessive responses via herbs, spices, natural means. As you seem to surmise, the "drying" effect of ethanol for poison oak does NOT help the skin to heal.
Brave search says: Yes, rubbing alcohol is a potent toxin. It contains isopropyl alcohol, which is chemically distinct from the ethanol in beverages and is highly toxic to the human body if ingested, inhaled in large quantities, or absorbed through the skin in significant amounts.
Just finding out online that the 70% rubbing alcohol should have a milder effect on the skin than the 99.9% one, which is for cleaning glass and suchlike.
The trick is to get high proof alcohols made with organic grains. The Organic Alcohol Company in Ashland, OR is one of the best sources I know of. Marion Farms is great for high quanitity biodynamic alcohol.
I’d really like some clarity on the difference between rubbing alcohol and isopropyl alcohol. I have a bottle here that says it’s rubbing isopropyl alcohol. Help Mr. Wizard.
Two ounces powdered myrrh. One ounce powdered goldenseal. Half an ounce cayenne pepper. One quart of seventy-percent rubbing alcohol. Combine, let stand seven days, shake once a day, decant, and bottle in corked bottles.¹
I have used Goldenseal and Myrrh for decades as an antibiotic. It is much simpler than the recipe in this article. Grind the Myrrh into a powder in a mortar and pestle. Put 1 teaspoon of the ground Myrrh in a cup. Add 1 teaspoon Goldenseal root powder. Pour one cup of boiling water into the cup. Stir well and let sit until cool, stirring occasionally. Drain off the water and keep it. Discard the rest. I keep the infusion in glass dropper bottles in the fridge for long storage or on the shelf for regular use. It's easy to make more when you, or a friend, need it. I buy the herbs in bulk (one pound) bags from an organic supplier. One pound of each will probably last your lifetime. This infusion can be used internally and externally. Soak a bandage with it before putting it on a sore or wound. For internal use, you can also take G&M in double O gelatin capsules. Take one of each at the same time. For a stomach ulcer, take one of each at bedtime. I cured an ulcer in 14 days this way (I had the ulcer for months and confirmed it through barium radiation). I have cured many things with this wonderful infusion. More people should know about it. No cayenne or alcohol is needed.
I wonder, if Nature's Way Golden Seal Root was more effective in the past than it is today. I still have some in my house to be used as a blood purifier. It helps get rid of infections.. In the 1960s, I was in a health food store and overheard a customer telling the clerk how good it was and I bought some. .I used it, when my young daughter got so sick that she lost her voice.. I gave her the golden seal along with honey and lemon in a drink every couple hours. .Her voice came back, after i did this several times and by the next day, she was better. In 1979, I became friends with a young woman who had two children. When her little daughter got very ill and she was about to put her in the hospital, I told her to ask the doctor, if she could bring her in the next morning. I told her how to use the Golden Seal for her 4 year old daughter. She did as i said, and the little girl was better the next day...and did not have to be hospitalized.
Vodka is what we use for tinctures. "Will he make it or will he won't?" He will make it because he has Goldenseal on his mountain, in the woods, Everclear can be obtained, and myrrh is the one we have to find, and will, if at all possible. It will be made. Thanks for this great essay on this great liniment.
hurray for touting herbs. I myself prefer simples, one herb at a time so you can see what is doing what. I use calendula, mary's gold, for bruises, cuts, tooth extractions, stubbed toes, frostbite pain, sore throat, headache and more. not for arthritis. I like mint for stomach intestinal issues, wind. I like dmso for sore hands and more. Simples are ceaper than the herb combo you call for. Also, i prefer non wheat vodka to rubbing alcohol so you can drink it in dropperfuls.
Author's Note
Readers have flagged, correctly, that isopropyl "rubbing alcohol" is not the ideal solvent for a topical preparation. Grain alcohol at 70–75% is more skin-compatible and less drying. Same solvent action on the resin and alkaloids.
Kloss's 1939 text specifies "rubbing alcohol (70 percent)" without naming the alcohol. In 1939 that phrase covered both ethanol and isopropyl formulations. Isopropyl became the default "rubbing alcohol" over the following decades on cost, after Standard Oil commercialized it in 1920 as a refining byproduct. His original readers may well have used ethanol.
The essay is updated. The recipe now specifies grain alcohol at 70–75% (Everclear 151 works directly; higher-proof grain alcohol diluted with distilled water also works). Marion Farms and Organic Alcohol Company are the standard sources for organic grain alcohol.
For the reader who hit $100 goldenseal on Amazon: Kloss himself added a note to the recipe that if goldenseal is not available, make the liniment without it. The two-ingredient version (myrrh and cayenne in grain alcohol) is field-workable. He anticipated the shortage sixty years before international treaty ratified it.
Thanks to the commenters who caught this.
Great mixture EXCEPT for the rubbing alcohol -- very drying and damaging to skin. I wouldn't use ethanol either, which is also toxic to the skin. Better to use something else, like DMSO, as the eluting ingredient, perhaps diluted to 30% or so with water or physiologic saline. Even better, mix in some coconut oil.
I love the idea of trying the recipe in DMSO. I have used it many times made with ethanol for poison oak and the drying is helpful during the weepy stages of the malady. I think DMSO would be even better and with less damage.
Always keep in mind that you don't want to stop the normal healing processes but only help them along. At times that might include gently controlling excessive responses via herbs, spices, natural means. As you seem to surmise, the "drying" effect of ethanol for poison oak does NOT help the skin to heal.
Brave search says: Yes, rubbing alcohol is a potent toxin. It contains isopropyl alcohol, which is chemically distinct from the ethanol in beverages and is highly toxic to the human body if ingested, inhaled in large quantities, or absorbed through the skin in significant amounts.
Just finding out online that the 70% rubbing alcohol should have a milder effect on the skin than the 99.9% one, which is for cleaning glass and suchlike.
I advise caution against rubbing alcohol which is called isopropyl alcohol.
It is toxic and absorbs through the skin.
Ethanol, on the other hand is safe as it's the same as in drinks containing alcohol.
Perhaps he may want to update the formula to use that instead. Everclear 151 is 75‰ alcohol and vodka is 80 proof or 40% alcohol.
The trick is to get high proof alcohols made with organic grains. The Organic Alcohol Company in Ashland, OR is one of the best sources I know of. Marion Farms is great for high quanitity biodynamic alcohol.
Thinking tge same
I’d really like some clarity on the difference between rubbing alcohol and isopropyl alcohol. I have a bottle here that says it’s rubbing isopropyl alcohol. Help Mr. Wizard.
Rubbing alcohol is mostly made of isopropyl alcohol, but other alcohols can also be used as for rubbing alcohol.
It's the bad alcohol. Also avoid acetone.
https://www.google.com/m?q=rubbing+alcohol
I wonder if glycerine could be used as a substitute for the rubbing alcohol? Also would be nice to know the ratios of the ingredients.
Starwest Botanical Goldenseal on Amazon is over $100 😳
Yikes! Well, gonna have to pass on that.
Here is the recipe from the essay;
Two ounces powdered myrrh. One ounce powdered goldenseal. Half an ounce cayenne pepper. One quart of seventy-percent rubbing alcohol. Combine, let stand seven days, shake once a day, decant, and bottle in corked bottles.¹
I am Mid Mo as well
Thank you! Do you think glycerin would be an appropriate substitute for the alcohol?
Hello to a fellow Missourian!
I don’t know. I will have to do some research. I might use DMSO, universal solvent.
I have used Goldenseal and Myrrh for decades as an antibiotic. It is much simpler than the recipe in this article. Grind the Myrrh into a powder in a mortar and pestle. Put 1 teaspoon of the ground Myrrh in a cup. Add 1 teaspoon Goldenseal root powder. Pour one cup of boiling water into the cup. Stir well and let sit until cool, stirring occasionally. Drain off the water and keep it. Discard the rest. I keep the infusion in glass dropper bottles in the fridge for long storage or on the shelf for regular use. It's easy to make more when you, or a friend, need it. I buy the herbs in bulk (one pound) bags from an organic supplier. One pound of each will probably last your lifetime. This infusion can be used internally and externally. Soak a bandage with it before putting it on a sore or wound. For internal use, you can also take G&M in double O gelatin capsules. Take one of each at the same time. For a stomach ulcer, take one of each at bedtime. I cured an ulcer in 14 days this way (I had the ulcer for months and confirmed it through barium radiation). I have cured many things with this wonderful infusion. More people should know about it. No cayenne or alcohol is needed.
I am making the liniment & purchasing the book
I won’t use rubbing alcohol, substituting.
I wonder, if Nature's Way Golden Seal Root was more effective in the past than it is today. I still have some in my house to be used as a blood purifier. It helps get rid of infections.. In the 1960s, I was in a health food store and overheard a customer telling the clerk how good it was and I bought some. .I used it, when my young daughter got so sick that she lost her voice.. I gave her the golden seal along with honey and lemon in a drink every couple hours. .Her voice came back, after i did this several times and by the next day, she was better. In 1979, I became friends with a young woman who had two children. When her little daughter got very ill and she was about to put her in the hospital, I told her to ask the doctor, if she could bring her in the next morning. I told her how to use the Golden Seal for her 4 year old daughter. She did as i said, and the little girl was better the next day...and did not have to be hospitalized.
Mountain Rose Herbs is refusing to sell me myrrh. They said I am being "restricted', without any explanation. I have had to order from Amazon.
Vodka is what we use for tinctures. "Will he make it or will he won't?" He will make it because he has Goldenseal on his mountain, in the woods, Everclear can be obtained, and myrrh is the one we have to find, and will, if at all possible. It will be made. Thanks for this great essay on this great liniment.
hurray for touting herbs. I myself prefer simples, one herb at a time so you can see what is doing what. I use calendula, mary's gold, for bruises, cuts, tooth extractions, stubbed toes, frostbite pain, sore throat, headache and more. not for arthritis. I like mint for stomach intestinal issues, wind. I like dmso for sore hands and more. Simples are ceaper than the herb combo you call for. Also, i prefer non wheat vodka to rubbing alcohol so you can drink it in dropperfuls.
ChatGPT suggests using food-grade non-denatured alcohol for the solvent…
Thank you. Again we see the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
I was interested to read about Smyrna, meaning 'bitter'. It contains the anagram 'Mary' which is also said to mean 'bitter' among other things.
But it also has the letters mrna. The mRNA injections are a bitter poison, bringing death. Perhaps they are embalming fluid. Hence myrrh and murder.
Thanks! I needed a liniment for my feet!