Tips for stocking your medicine cabinet

When it comes to stocking your home medicine chest, you should supplement your basic equipment with natural remedies. Below are natural medicines that are always great to have on hand.

You should also keep a list of the most important emergency numbers handy or on speed dial: emergency response (police, fire and ambulance), family doctor, nearest hospital/poison centre, emergency room and pharmacy.

• The following essential oils have a place in every medicine cabinet: St. John's wort oil (nervousness/depression), tea tree oil (healing of wounds) and eucalyptus oil (respiratory passages). Use three to five drops of each for wraps, additives to bathwater or inhaling. Pick up essential oils from pharmacies or health food stores.
• The most important tinctures for your medicine cabinet come from pot marigold blooms, chamomile and St. John's wort. Use them externally or internally. Chamomile soothes such things as stomach and cold symptoms, and St. John's wort helps with nervousness and depression. A rule of thumb: for internal applications, use 10 drops, three times a day in water or juice. For external treatment of things such as skin injuries, dilute the tinctures in a 1:4 ratio and use with compresses or add to bathwater (e.g., chamomile for insomnia or stress). Tinctures can be pricey, but you can easily make your own supply. You need about 15 grams (1/2 ounce) of herb per 100 millilitres (3 1/2 ounces) of rubbing alcohol and dark, sealable glass bottles for storage. Kept cool, they will last for about a year.
• Prepare curative teas from five millilitres (one teaspoon) of dried flowers and leaves of various herbs and 250 millilites (one cup) of hot water.

Chamomile: Stomach and digestive ailments

Linden: Feverish cold and illnesses, stomach and intestinal cramps, nervousness, headaches (particularly migraines), infections

Lemon balm: Sleep disturbances, queasy stomach and intestinal problems, nervousness

Peppermint: Nausea, vomiting, inflammation of the stomach lining, intestinal gas

Plantain: Cough, hoarseness, whooping cough

Store your medicinal arsenal in a dry, dark and cool place, or in a lockable cabinet — preferably out of the reach of small fingers. Check the contents regularly to ensure that the expiry dates of medications have not passed and there is enough on hand for an emergency.