Q: I want to make a tincture at home. The plants are rich in alkaloids and phytosteroids. Rhaponticum Carthamoides- Maral root. I want to use everclear (95% grain alcohol). What's a good way to do it? What's a good way to make a good tincture or extract period? Thank you for your time.
A: There are different schools of thought on how to make a good tincture. Since you wrote through Susun's website, I can tell you she advocates using 100 proof vodka - asking why would we tincture using a medium we ourselves would not consume directly. Some however vary the percentage of tincture and water depending on the plants, whether they are dried or fresh, and what constituents you wish to draw from them. For some plants too it helps to add a bit of acetum in there, so some vinegar. Some grind herbs up and some shake it up. I, for the most part, do as I learned from Susun, which is chop up the herb coarsely, smaller when dense like the root in this case, fill up a jar with it if fresh and pour 100 proof vodka over it to cover, cap, label, and let steep at least 6 weeks in a cool dark place. If dried material, I use one part dried to 5 parts liquid. The more dense the material the longer I let it sit. My echinacea roots I let sit 6 months at least before decanting- that is, straining the liquid off and squeezing as much as possible out of the "marc" - spent herb.
I am unfamiliar with this herb, other than as an adaptagen, for which I might use other herbs easier to grow and harvest and more familiar to me. I see David Winston speaks of this herb in his book "Adaptagens." Perhaps he can elaborate on its specific preparation.
Please let me know if I can help further.
Blessings,
Karen Joy
wisewoman@herbshealing.com
www.wisewomanweb.com
Q: Thank you for your reply, its the most informative one i've received. When is it recommended that vinegar be used? And what is the best vinegar to use in conjunction with high percentage alcohol? The reason I want to use everclear is that it will make a better extract/tincture- is this true? (by the way I intend to thin the extract with distilled water at least 25% after it is complete) Thank You again.
Best Regards
A: I can share my thoughts but they are ever evolving, and what you find is "true" will vary from person to person, moment to moment. And as I said depends on the particular herb. I find apple cider vinegar to be the best vinegar to use, as do most herbalists to my knowledge, since even by itself it can be health promoting. Remember it is usually only about 5% acetic acid and the rest is water, when figuring the ratios of all the different menstruums in your tincture. Different menstruums draw out different qualities of herbs, which is why we choose different methods depending on the particular plant. In a tincture, vinegar is best used to combine with some alkaloids (which one I can not tell you in this case) to form alkaloidal salts, which then makes these alkaloids more readily accessible to the remaining alcohol solution. Vinegars too are great for accessing the minerals in substances; in this case used alone, without the alcohol. There are some aspects of plants we want to access that are best done so with water like saponins and tannins. If an herb contains several constituents we want to access, we need to consider carefully what to use as our menstruum/s, for example some things, like mucilage and polysaccharides, are precipitated out by the addition of alcohol, therefore unusable. So unless you are extracting a resin, I imagine the menstruum ought to contain some water to start. If you just use straight grain alcohol then you may miss out on anything that is water soluble. However if you mix the alcohol and vinegar you have your water. I hope I didn't make things more complicated. When working with an herb new to me I rely on those herbalists before me who have had experience with this herb, and on my natural curiosity that leads me to experiment!! I simply am unfamiliar with your choice and do not find anything written to help me say more definitively on how best to access it.
Blessings,
Karen Joy
wisewoman@herbshealing.com
www.wisewomanweb.com
Q: Hello Again,
Thank You again for you reply it is very much appreciated the extent you go to and time put into your mail. The herb i wish to extract is Rhaponticum Carthamoides- Leuzea or Maral root. What I'm after :
" is a mixture of compounds called, "levseins". Levseins represents a complex of more than 10 ecdysterones including 20-beta-ecdysterone, makisterone C, 24-dehydromakisterone A, carthamosterone, polypodyne B and ajugasterone C." - Dr. Zakir Ramazanov
and to extract these phytosteroids what do I use? You said Saponins and Tannins are water soluble, are these substances Saponin-like? Thank You again for your time and knowlege.
Best Regards
A: My inclination with phytosteroids is to extract them from a water preparation of the dried plant. Not knowing anything about this herb, this is where I would start. Wanting to know more, though, I would trust and search the herbal wisdom of the people local to where it grows - asking how is it prepared and what is it used for.
Being scientific in nature I love taking plants apart into constituents to then manipulate with different menstruums. At the same time I often feel a need to surrender to the chaos of a complete plant, where the whole is more than the sum of its parts, and where all our scientific knowledge just does not hold firm. A constituent that should not, by all our tests, be extraced by a particular method, sometimes is. And all we do at that point is admit there may be more to the plant than we know, and infinitely more to the action all its "parts" have on each other than we can yet comprehend.
Blessings,
Karen Joy
wisewoman@herbshealing.com
www.wisewomanweb.com
Q: Hello Karen,
Thank you again for your advice. You've been of great help. So far I have 3 Batches one w/ vinegar(5%, so water too) + everclear, one with just everclear and one with everclear + distilled water. I will let you know which one works best if you'd like to know .... Also, if you'd like more info on the plant (Rhaponticum)please let me know (i will actually be growing it soon along with Rhodiola Rosea). Once again thank you for all the time you have given me, it really made a difference, I really appreciate it.
Best Regards,
Recent Comments