Herbal Preparations

teas (for fresh or dried herbs)...
Steep an arbitrary amount of an herb in an arbitrary amount of hot (not boiling water) for an arbitrary length of time. Strain & drink. 

“nourishing” infusions (for nutrient rich “food” herbs)...
Boil 1 quart of water in a pot, turn the heat off, add 1 ounce of herbs and cover. Or pour water just off the boil over 1 ounce of herbs in a mason jar, or more ideally, a french press. Steep 4-8ish hours. If using a mason jar, cap it while steeping and be careful! The jars will get hot, and though they usually won't, they can sometimes break.

Nourishing infusions can be made before bed and consumed throughout the next day, rather than making them in the morning and having to wait up to 8 hours to drink some. Discard any leftovers after one day, or refrigerate and drink within 2 days.

It is the large volume of plant material and the long steep time that optimizes the extraction of minerals. If using these proportions for more “medicinal” herbs, the dosage is usually less than a quart a day; determined by which herb is being used. 

cold infusions (for mucilaginous demulcents & peach/apple/cherry bark)...
Infuse 1 ounce herb in 1 quart cool to cold water for 4-8 hours (or overnight), and strain. Some people say to suspend the herb at the top of the jar, but I haven't found that you really need to. 

decoctions (for dried or fresh roots, barks, berries or seeds)...
For a more concentrated preparation made from denser plant material, add 1 ounce of herbs to a quart of water. Slowly bring to a boil, and continue to boil for around 5 minutes to hours (I prefer low and slow over rapid rolling boils). You can increase the concentration of your preparation by slowly reducing volume to by about 1/2 or to 1/4 its original volume (from a quart to a pint or cup). Strain, cool & drink. This is not an ideal technique for aromatic herbs, as you'll lose a lot of volatile oils to the prolonged boiling. 

syrups
I make syrups by combining an infusion, decoction, or berry juice with an equal volume of honey. This syrup will be wonderful and not too sweet, but will need to be refrigerated to preserve it. It should last several weeks, months, or longer. I often store the bulk of my syrup in the freezer and thaw what I need to use as I go to ensure longer preservation. If you want a “shelf stable” syrup that doesn’t require refrigeration, you’ll need to use refined white sugar, and add about 2 parts sugar to 1 part infusion/decoction/berry juice. Even this, though, isn’t 100% contaminant-proof. Using distilled water, straining the infusion/decoction/berry juice through paper or cloth to remove fine plant material, sterilizing your bottles and everything you use to prepare things, and not sipping right out of the bottle will do a lot to prevent spoilage.

eye washes and nasal rinses
Make a tea or infusion of herbs, and strain that tea through a coffee filter (little floaties are fine for drinking, but not for pouring into you eye or nose).  For every 8 fluid ounce cup of filtered tea, add 1/4 teaspoon of salt and stir till dissolved.  This makes the tea saline, and more gratefully accepted by eye and nasal tissues (though it shouldn't be bubbling or steaming!).  You can apply to the eyes as drops, a compress or in an eyecup, or to the nose using a neti pot or nasal spray bottle.  This preparation does not contain preservatives, so can't be stored for more than a couple days, if refrigerated.  I make up quart batches and freeze the excess in ice cube trays for later use.

steam inhalations
Steam inhalations are great for breaking up sinus or lung congestion.  Simply fill a pot with water and an aromatic plant (say, sage), cover and bring to a boil.  Remove the pot from heat, and lean over it with a towel over your head to catch the steam.  Inhale slowly & fully, and be careful!  The steam will, of course, be hot.  Steaming for 5-15 minutes a few times a day is a good time frame to shoot for.

infused oils
Solar Infusions: Pack a mason jar as tightly as possible with a fresh herb of your choice.  If the herb contains a high percentage of water, it's best to partially or fully dry it first. Pour olive oil into the jar and then press the herbs with a clean spoon or something to squeeze out as much of the trapped air as possible.  Repeat until you can't get any more air bubbles out, then cap the jar and set it directly in the sun for a month or two.  Then strain the oil through cotton or cheesecloth, squeezing as much from the wet herb as possible.  Let the strained oil sit for at least a day… a week is way way better.  Any water in your oil will settle to the bottom.  Slowly pour the oil into a clean jar being careful not let any of the settled water come along with it.  Cap and store in a cool, dark place. 

"Kitchen" Infusions: Combine dried or fresh herbs and olive oil in a double boiler (sometimes I use a ration of 7 ounces oil to every once of dried or two ounces of fresh herb, but I will also often just eyeball it).  Heat over the lowest heat possible for several hours - the longer the better (I frequently steep stuff for days).  Strain into clean mason jars, and if using fresh herbs, separate the oil from any water as described above. 

You can add some Vitamin E Oil to act as a preservative; Henriette Kress suggests 10 ml per every liter of oil (it’s metric because she lives in Finland and I’m too lazy to convert it…). 

salves
Infuse salve ingredients in oil as described above.  Reheat the strained oil in a double boiler, and to every cup of oil add about 1 ounce of beeswax.  You can drop some of the molten salve onto a piece of wax paper and let it harden to check the consistency.  If too soft, add more beeswax; if too hard, add more oil.  When you're happy with the consistency, pour into clean jars. Four once mason jars are ideal, as are old lip balm containers.  A touch of lanolin in the mix can do wonders, serving as a bridge between the oil & wax and increasing its absorbability.   

liniments
In a mason jar, pour rubbing alcohol over the desired herbs.  For dry herbs, use around 5 ounces of alcohol per ounce; for fresh herbs, about 2 ounces of alcohol per once.  Let sit for two weeks, shaking daily, then strain into clean bottles.  Because liniments use rubbing alcohol, make sure they are labeled "FOR EXTERNAL USE ONLY!"  Rubbing alcohol can be fatal if taken internally. 

Note: I pretty much never use rubbing alcohol smells repulsive; I just make the with ethanol and though it costs more, it doesn't creep me out.  I don't think rubbing alcohol is bad to use topically, just icky.

poultices
This is an external application of bruised fresh or brewed dried herbs.  For example, bruise a handful of fresh plantain leaves (or chew them to make a "spit poultice" for greater bio-activity) and apply to a wound to facilitate cleaning and faster healing.  For a dried plant poultice, steep some dried chamomile in hot water and apply the damp herb to raw, enflamed skin.  Tea bags make very good poultices (though watch out for staples).   

tinctures
People are often intimidated by making tinctures.  It figures, as almost every book describes this process differently, and for those of us who want to understand the process, it is good to know why we are doing what we are doing. On the most basic level, a tincture is made from a fresh or dried herb that has been soaked in an alcohol/water solution (called a "menstruum").  This is the same process used in making vanilla extract. 

For those concerned about the alcohol intake involved in the use of tinctures, consider this (quoted from Daniel Gagnon's Herbs Ect website:  "Although some people may be concerned about the amount of alcohol in alcohol-containing liquid herbal extracts, there is little cause for worry. On average, 30 drops of an extract containing 70 percent alcohol (see the label on the bottle for the percentage of alcohol) has the same amount of alcohol as one ripe banana.  Additionally, when we eat fruit, our bodies naturally produce alcohol via the fermentation process in our stomachs.  The point I am making here is that most alcohol sensitive people do not quit eating fruit. So if one dosage of a liquid herbal extract is only a banana's worth of alcohol, this small amount of alcohol should not pose a significant threat to most people.  However, if you must abstain from alcohol for religious, health, or addiction reasons consider softgel formulations as an effective alternative."  Also, depending on the herb you're using and your personal sensitivity, you need not take a full 30 drops… some tinctures are effective in far smaller doses.  Contrary to herban legend, adding a tincture to hot water or tea while it is infusing or decocting does not remove the alcohol. 

That being said, it is my opinion that making and using your own tinctures is one of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself.  It's not (at all) that tinctures are in any way better than teas, but it'll just save you a ton of dough.  By following recipes learned from herbals or taught here, you should be able to establish a "home apothecary" that will be available to address many of life's common traumas and inconveniences for only a fraction of the cost.  Using freshly gathered herbs you've grown or collected will ensure quality medicine.   

Many herbalists prepare tinctures simply by filling a jar full to the brim with an herb, and then filling the remainder with 40-50% (80-100 proof) alcohol.  This is called the "simpler's" method.  While you can make fine tinctures this way, the arbitrary nature of the preparation can lead to inconsistencies between batches and individual extracts... depending on how much herb you added, how finely you chopped it, or how firmly you pressed it down in the jar, one batch may be more or less concentrated than another, so 30 drops of one is not equivalent to 30 drops of another.  While most of the time the strength of simpler’s tinctures and tinctures made by weighing the herb and measuring the alcohol are similar, if an herb is especially fluffy (like mullein, red clover or willow flowers), they’ll take up a lot of room in a jar and can make for a less potent tincture (by less potent I means less saturated). 

It’s only a bit more complicated to make extracts using "weight-to-volume" ratios, all you need is a measuring cup and a scale.  You can get a nice digital scale online for less than $20.  Following this process means that I can count on the consistency and quality of the extracts I produce, and that the strengths of individual extracts will be balanced for use in formulations.  The process is simple:   

for dried herbs
Dried herbs are tinctured at a ratio of 1:5, that is, for every 1 ounce of dried herb, 5 ounces of menstruum (the alcohol/water solution) are used.  I kinda want my menstruum to contain the percentage of water that was originally in the plant when it was fresh, therefore returning it to its original balance.  The only way to really do this is to collect some fresh herb, weigh it, then dry it and weigh it again to figure out what percentage of the original weight was water, but that's kind of a hassle, so you can rely on other sources to get a sense of what alcohol percentage might make sense for a given  herb.  This information can be found via Michael Moores's Materia Medica, obtainable through his web site at www.swsbm.com (look under Manuals); you can also look at bottles from companies like Gaia Herbs or Herb Pharm to see what they use (you can often look up this info online; even Amazon has pictures of tincture labels).  When in doubt, use 50% alcohol.  If you are not meticulously inclined, you could probably use 50% alcohol for all your extracts, though oily & resinous herbs are ideally extracted in higher alcohol contents, and slimy demulcent herbs at lower.  The herb is coarsely chopped or ground as needed, put in a mason jar (make sure the jar is big enough!), and the alcohol/water menstruum poured over it.  It is then capped, left for at least a couple weeks in a cool, dark place, shaken daily, and then strained for use. 

As an example, suppose we have chosen to make a kava kava tincture from 4 ounces of dried roots.  At a 1:5 ratio, this means we will need 20 ounces of menstrum (4x5=20).  Consulting Michael Moore's Materia Medica, we see kava needs a 60% alcohol (the 40% water is assumed) menstruum.  This equates to 12 ounces of alcohol and 8 ounces of water... if we can get 95% grain alcohol, that's be 12 ounces of that and 8 ounces of water (best not to use tap water).  If not, because 95% alcohol isn't available everywhere, do the best you can.  We grind the kava coarsely in a coffee grinder, put it in a mason jar, and pour the menstruum over it.  Cap the jar, put it in a cupboard and shake it daily.  How long it takes to be really depends on who you ask.  2-6 weeks makes sense to me.  Strain and bottle.  Easy.   

for fresh herbs
When tincturing fresh herbs, we use a ratio of 1:2; for every 1 once of fresh herb, 2 ounces of alcohol are used.  Because fresh herbs contain water, we do not have to add water to our menstrum...  95% grain alcohol can be used.  Don't worry; the alcohol will also extract the water from the plant, diluting it to a less potent percentage.  If you can't get this where you live, Everclear and some vodkas can be found at 151 proof (75.5%) to 160 proof (80%).  Some people still use plain old vodka.  Chop up the herb, put it in a jar, pour the alcohol in, steep, shake, & strain in 2-6 weeks weeks.  You now have a high quality fresh plant tincture. 

As an example, suppose you dig up 8 ounces of fresh echinacea root.  After cleaning the roots and chopping them into small pieces, put them in a jar and pour 16 ounces (8 x 2 = 16) of grain alcohol over them.  Cap and let steep for an at least 2 weeks in a cool, dark place, shaking daily.  After 2 weeks, strain and bottle.

If your menstruum doesn't fully cover the herb (which we want it to do), there are a few choices to consider.  You could just add more menstruum; this will not make your tincture "weaker", just more dilute, and you may need to increase dosage a wee bit.  You can also try using a smaller jar, which will keep the herb compressed into a smaller space.  Lastly, you can weigh the herb down using a clean rock or crystal or glass "pickling weights".  Whatever you choose, don't stress about it; if you're using primo herbs your tincture should turn out awesome.    

a note on straining
This can be a great frustration in making tinctures (hence the word: "Strain")... you've made your tincture, and you want to get every last drop out of it. 

First, you don't need to strain your tincture after 2-6 weeks.  I most often leave things steeping much longer, filling up dropper bottles from the jar as needed, and strain when this becomes difficult.  When you get to the straining, traditional processes tell us to pour the extract through "several layers of cheese cloth" into a jar, and then to squeeze out as much of the extract as possible.  My experience says that you will find that far, far to much of your extract is stuck in the cheese cloth and the leftover plant material to make this acceptable (imagine getting only 10 of your 20 ounces of tincture…).  while I have a 2 ton tincture press, I've discovered a few tricks to make this straining more effective for people who don't.  The first is an Oxo brand potato ricer ($20), which is essentially a large, stainless steel garlic press type thing.  Empty your spent herb into the chamber and squeeze away.  You may wish to line the chamber with muslin to catch fine particles.   

Another method is to get 2 Ball mason jars, one wide mouth pint and one tall pint jelly jar, that fit into each other.  Put the spent herb into the large jar, and then insert the smaller jar.  Put both into a large Tupperware dish and press out the juice (try bouncing on them to make use of gravity).  One should be cautious, though… glass breaks.  I used to use a cutting board between my hands and the jars, protecting me from the potential of injury. 

Now that you've "strained", you may wish to filter out the finer sediments; unbleached coffee filters are good for this.  This is not really necessary, though there are exceptions.  Mullein, for example… you’ll want to remove all those fine fuzzy hairs, which can irritate enflamed throats when taken.  But most of the time, I just filter through a wire strainer and leave fine sediment in; there's often plant constituents that are suspended in, as opposed to dissolved in, your tincture that could be filtered out if using paper.

Take your time, try not to get to mad when you spill something, when your filter tears, when you can't squeeze out more than half (or less!) of what you put in, etc…  At the same time, don't admonish yourself when you do get frustrated, your tincture won't curdle if you swear.  Just take a break and look at mistakes and accidents as an offering to the learning process.  When you're done, you will have created good medicine. 

one last note regarding tincture making...
It is not uncommon for people to feel intimidated by the idea of making their own tinctures.  This is usually associated with the belief that the process is more difficult than it actually is, or that it would be ruined if some part of the "recipe" was not followed exactly.  Perhaps it even comes down to the belief that "it can't be that easy".  In actuality, it is that easy.   

If you feel intimidated by tincture making, start by only using dried herbs and 100 proof vodka.  Despite that the process I've outlined earlier requires calculating alcohol percentages, this is mostly due to my own preferences, and there are very few instances in which using 100 proof vodka would detrimentally affect the quality of your tincture.  Simply follow the "7 step plan" below:    

1.) Put a bunch of dried herb in a mason jar   
2.) Add enough 100 proof vodka to cover the herb.  
3.) Cap the jar, and store it out of the light in a cool dark place
4.) Try to shake daily for 2-6 weeks   
5.) Uncap the jar   
6.) Pour out the tincture, and squeeze out the wet herbs as best you can   
7.) Filter the tincture through cheesecloth, cotton, muslin and/or a coffee filter 

And there you have it, that's all it takes.  Of course, you'll want to make sure that your hands are clean, that your mason jar doesn't smell like pasta and that your cheesecloth/cotton/muslin hasn't been used to wipe up spilled milk, but that's rather obvious, isn't it? 

What you'll get in return from this is the gratification of knowing that you made your medicine, that you saved a ton of money, and the rather nervous, uncertain looks from the more conventional members of your family when you tell them:   

"Of course it works, I made it myself out of dried weeds and vodka!"