After enjoying the medicinal benefits of many herbs, some of you may feel like taking the next step. Start making your own herbal tinctures! Herbal tinctures are quite simply concentrated liquid extracts of dried or fresh herbs in either an alcohol or vegetable glycerin base.
Herbal Tinctures Advantages
1.) Herbal tinctures are easy to make.
2.) Herbal tinctures have a longer shelf life than dried or fresh herbs.
3.) Herbal tinctures made with high-proof alcohol have an even greater shelf life due to the preservative qualities of alcohol.
4.) Herbal tinctures are more easily absorbed into the bloodstream.
Ingredients for Herbal Tinctures
1.) High-proof alcohol – corn grain alcohol is the preferred medium.
2.) Fresh or dried herbs to be added to the high-proof alcohol or vegetable glycerin.
The Process
1.) Steep your herb or combination of herbs in high-proof alcohol or vegetable glycerin.
2.) Strain the spent herb or herbs from the alcohol or vegetable glycerin. This makes a herbal tincture in a concentrated form.
3.) The correct ration of herb to alcohol is 1:1 for fresh herbs and 1:2 for dried herbs. Due to moisture content of fresh herbs, you will need more fresh herbs to get the same concentration.
After your herbal tincture is prepared, simply add the number of drops required to any liquid and this will give you a proper dose of herbal cure!
More on how to make your own herbal tinctures can be found here:
How to Make Herbal Tinctures
Learn how to make your own vegetable glycerin base here:
Vegetable Glycerin
Staying above the water line!
Riverwalker
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6 comments:
thanks RW, great resource.
To: seth
They're simple to make and are an additional use for your vodka, rum, etc. as a survival resource for another useful way to incorporate your various supplies.
RW
Good post, RW. When I make tinctures, once the alcohol is added, I let them "steep" for 4-6 weeks before straining out the herb. So far, I've got elderberry tincture, goldenseal, spicebush leaf, and yellow dock/dandelion root. It's a great way to extract and use the medicinal properties of the herbs.
HM
Don't use flavored, or "colored," or "oak-aged" alcohol to make tinctures. What you want is alcohol that is as pure as possible, with the fewest number of non-alcohol molecules as possible. Whisky, rum, and so on has less "clean" (pure) alcohol per part, so will absorb less of the herb than alcohol that is more pure. The higher the proof the better. For this reason, high-proof vodka and "everclear" (90%+ proof) are the best to use for tinctures. Do some research on bird flu elderberry tincture and you'll get the same info. Thanks for your Web site.
To: patricia
Keep up the good work on your site!
RW
To: anonymous
AS usual, I left out a very important aspect of making tinctures. Thanks.
RW
BTW, will update post to include your very relevant information.
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