ECHINACEA TINCTURE
Being used to dusty capsules, I was surprised by echinacea’s delicious green scent with hints of fruitiness that reminded me of raisins.
Echinacea has become a household word of herbal medicine. Even those who are not generally comfortable with natural medicine, will take echinacea capsules to prevent a cold or speed recovery. Unfortunately, capsules are not the most effective way to make sure your body gets the beneficial effects of echinacea.
{MEDICINAL PROFILE}
We already discussed the medicinal benefits of echinacea when we made a decoction with echinacea root. For this tincture we are going to use echinacea herb—the aerial part; in this case they appear to be the leaf and stem parts.
Why would you choose to use echinacea herb over the more potent echinacea root? For one thing, over-harvesting {over-using} the root can create a shortage of echinacea; once you harvest the root, the plant will not be making more medicine. For that reason, echinacea root can also be more expensive or harder to find. Also, the root and herb have different kinds or proportions of the medicinal constituents, so one may work better for you than another. Generally speaking, they are interchangeable; however, you may need a smaller dose of the root preparations.
You can use echinacea root or herb to make an echinacea tincture.
{TINCTURES}
An alcoholic tincture is very effective at drawing out the essential compounds of plants, especially those that are fibrous, woody or resinous.
Tinctures are often considered the preferred way of using herbs for medicine. They keep the nutrients from the plant in stable, soluble form. They retain the volatile and semi-volatile ingredients that would be lost in a heat-process extraction. These concentrated extracts that last a very long time, much longer than other herbal preparations, and they also transport easily since they don’t require refrigeration. It is very easy to adjust the dosage.
Most importantly, perhaps, is their ability to be rapidly absorbed and processed by the body.
The herb is ground to increase the surface area exposed to the extracting menstruum. If you are using dried herbs, as I will be, you can grind it to a powder before adding the alcohol; you can also use fresh herbs, and they are ground with the alcohol to create a thick slurry.
The alcohol used to extract and preserve medicine should not be flavored, colored or sweetened. Vodka is a popular choice. The vodka used for medicine making should be no less than 80-proof; 80-proof means the vodka has a 40% water content. This combination maximizes the extraction of medicinal constituents from the plant; alcohol extracts the alkaloids and flavonoids. while water extracts the glycosides and saponins. Too much water can promote spoilage.
If you are uncomfortable ingesting the alcohol, you can ‘burn off’ the alcohol by putting the dose in a cup of boiling water and drinking it as a tea. {Why bother with the alcohol extraction, then?—Because not all the benefits you wanted to extract from the herb are water-soluble.}
{ECHINACEA TINCTURE}
Although you can make tinctures with the folk method, most people today prefer a more precise tincture that better allows you to adjust dosage. This does require a bit of math, but do not be intimidated!
Tincture-making involves ratios. You can make tinctures of greater or less concentration, depending on how much tincture you want to take for the desired dose.
We are going to make a 1:5 tincture. The 1 of this ratio is the weight of the herb in grams. The 5 is the volume of the vodka in milliliters.
We are going to use 25 grams of echinacea herb. That is the 1 of 1:5. So how much vodka are we going to use? {25 x 5 = 125; we will use 125 milliliters of vodka. It’s math, but it’s not too hard!}
Weigh the 25 grams of the echinacea and grind it to a coarse powder, using a coffee grinder dedicated to your herbal concocting. {Avoid inhaling. As with any fine powder, the powdered herb can be inhaled and irritate the respiratory tract.}
In a clean mason jar blend the powdered jar with the 125 ml of 80-proof vodka. Press the herb down so that some of the vodka sits on the top; if necessary, top it off with another splash of vodka. Slide a butter knife around the edge of the container to break air bubbles.
Seal the jar tightly and label with the name, date and tincture ratio, so that you can use these strong medicines correctly.. Allow the mixture to sit in a cool, dark place for 2-4 weeks. {Some tinctures steep 6 weeks or longer!} Everyday, shake the jar to ensure maximum extraction during this time.
Afterwards, press and strain the herb; using a tincture press helps ensure you get the most medicine you can from the tincture. You can buy them online for several hundred dollars, or use online instructions for making your own press for $12.
Or you can use a strainer lined with cheesecloth. After you have poured all the tincture into the strainer, gather up and twist the corners of the cheesecloth and squeeze the herb as strongly as you can to extract more of the tincture.
If you have a lot of powder at the bottom of the jar, you can then strain it through a muslin cloth or coffee filter.
Use a funnel to decant the tincture into dark glass bottles with gradated droppers. It is very important to label these bottles with the name, date and tincture ratio, so that you can use these strong medicines correctly.
Kept in a cool, dark place a tincture can have a shelf life of 2-5 years, due to the preservative effects of the alcohol.
DOSE: 30-100 drops as needed. It works best when given regularly at high doses during an acute infection; dosage is tapered as the condition improves.
{DISCLAIMER}
The author is not a medical doctor, nor is she a licensed medical professional. Any recommendations are to educate for consumer health awareness and should not be considered diagnosis or prescribed treatment for any medical condition. If you are experiencing symptoms that concern you, please consult your healthcare provider.
• echinacea herb •
June 27, 2014