Most recently, Virginia created a nettle tincture from a large
bouquet of nettle stalks I plucked from my little experimental permaculture plot. The tincture is one of the best ways of
preserving all of the volatile medicinal compounds held within
the fresh nettle. She mentions that fresh is usually better than
dried when extracting medicinal compounds from herbs. The
reactive nature of phenolic acids and aromatic hydrocarbons
makes fresh extractions critical.
However, this does not always hold true. There are some
plants that are toxic when not dried or cured properly.
I suggest reading Andrew Chevallier’s text, Encyclopedia of
Herbal Medicine, in order to better recognize and understand
a wide range of medicinal plants. Making a tincture requires
soaking the herb in alcohol (vodka, rum, whiskey). Alcohol and
oil dissolve evenly into each other due to them being miscible, as well as, having a similar molecular make-up. This makes
tinctures fairly strait forward and simple. The tincture has a
stable shelf life of up to 2 years!
• inctures are strong preparations, and it is essential to
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check the recommended dosage. Never use industrial alcohol, methylated spirits (methyl alcohol), or rubbing alcohol
(isopropyl alcohol) in tinctures.
• lcoholic tinctures should be avoided during pregnancy
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and/or gastric inflammation.
• dding 5 ml of tincture to a small glass of almost boiling
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water and leaving for 5 minutes allows the alcohol to evaporate.
• o make nonalcoholic tinctures, replace alcohol with vineT
gar or glycerol.
• Standard tincture ratio is 1:5 at 1 part herb to 5 parts alcohol
When preparing to make a tincture you’ll need the following items:
• Pesticide/Fungicide free herb of choice (Nettle in this case)
1 part
• Tincture specific alcohol of choice 5 parts
• Large glass jar with lid
• Small label w/ date and contents written
• mall wine press or nylon/cheese cloth for straining plant
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matter
• Funnel
• ark colored glass (preferably UV proof/Violiv jars from a
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Bloomington Wholesale distributor like Flora Hydroponics)
• And 2 to 6 weeks of patience
1. Place the plant matter into the glass jar.
2. Pour in the alcohol making sure it covers all the herbs.
3. Make sure to shake the bottle up to ensure everything is
mixed thoroughly.
4. Store in a cool dark place for the next two to six weeks;
5. The longer the soak the stronger the brew.
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