Making Tinctures

Making Tinctures.

Tinctures are used to store herbs until needed and to enable their easy administration.

Basically, they are alcohol extractions of the active constituents from the herbs. The procedure involves soaking the herbs in alcohol before sieving and/or pressing. Here are some FAQs about the process of making a simple extraction.

How do I prepare the herb? It’s best to finely chop the herb to maximise its surface area and make the extraction work faster. Fresh or dried herbs can be used. Traditionally, a tincture made from fresh herbs is called a ‘specific tincture’.

Why is alcohol used? Alcohol breaks down the cell walls, dissolves many complex compounds and inactivates enzymes thus preventing further biochemical change, it is a preservative. A carefully made tincture will last several years.

How strong should the alcohol be? Your finished tincture needs to be at least 25% ABV to be stable. Vodka at 38.5% works well, you need to remember that moisture in the herb will further dilute it.

How long should I leave it soaking? As the alcohol is a very good preservative the tincture will not spoil from being left too long. Over a period of time, the compounds being extracted will vary, so for instance aromatics will arrive first and tannins later. For flowers, a few hours or a couple of days might be sufficient; for woody herbs weeks or months might be needed.

How should I label the tincture? Tinctures are typically labelled like this:

Sambucus nigra (fruct)

1:4 25%

The top line describes the herb - that is the fruit of Sambucus nigra or elderberries

1:4 gives the proportion that is 1kg of fruit to 4l of vodka.

25% records the ABV of the tincture.

How strong should I make it? When the herb is benign, you should try to make it strong, 1:4 is good 1:2 may be possible with a dried herb. If the herb has high toxicity levels then it may be safer to make a weaker tincture eg 1:10: always remembering that it is the dosage which determines the amount of toxicity not the strength of the tincture. Very toxic herbs should only be used by herbalists of sufficient experience.

What is a dual extraction? This is when a both a tincture and a tea is made and then they are combined. It is done to extract different compounds some of which are soluble in alcohol and others in water. The alcohol must be significantly stronger to end with at least 25% and pure ethanol might be used. Dual extraction is often used for making tinctures from fungi.