How to Make an Herbal Tincture

My former career as a soapmaker taught me just how important weight is to the success of soapmaking. And not just the success, but the safety of the soap itself- an issue soapmakers are very persnickety about. Accurately weighing oils, butters, and lye is critical to ensure that no lye remains in the finished bars of soap. To clarify, lye is a caustic soda that will burn the skin. To transform these lye molecules into soap, they must each pair off with a fat/oil molecule. Typically, soapmakers superfat their soaps, which means adding more fat than needed. This ensures that every molecule has a partner and becomes soap; it also means there is leftover fat to make the soap moisturizing. The lesson here is that to better guarantee outcomes and control quality, one must weigh ingredients when making things. This is true for cooking, soapmaking, and even herbalism.

When making herbal tinctures, many home herbalists use the folkloric method. This method eyeballs ingredient amounts. It is a wonderful method that produces good tinctures, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. However, if you want to ensure quality, predictability, and longer-lasting tinctures, then consider using the more scientific method of weighing ingredients or the Weight-to-Volume method of tincture making. This is the method I will be using today in this tutorial.

Weight-to-Volume Method

This method isn’t more difficult, but it does require a little math, a weight scale with grams, and either a volume scale or a graduated cylinder for volume measurements. The benefit is that it produces more consistent and reliable results, which is helpful if you want to take your home herbalism up a notch. Basically, you will use a certain amount of herbs with a certain amount of alcohol. The type of alcohol varies depending on whether you’re using fresh or dried herbs. In the recipe below, I will go over both methods, but first, a few questions.

Some Questions You Might Have

Can all herbs be tinctured? Yes, many, if not most, herbs can be tinctured; but the better question is: how do you plan to use the herbs, and what benefits do you want to extract? For example, if you plan to use an herb such as marshmallow for its mucilage, an infusion is best, as a tincture doesn’t dissolve mucilage well.

Why are different levels of alcohol used in fresh and dried herbal tinctures? Fresh herbs contain lots of water, which dilutes the alcohol. The amount of alcohol is important because it not only extracts the medicinal constituents but also serves as a preservative. You want your tinctures to last a long time. Dried herbs don’t have water in them, so 100-proof vodka (or 50% alcohol) is what’s needed. Some tinctures can last years if properly made with the right ingredients!

Are dried or fresh herbs better? While there is an allure to harvesting fresh plant material and tincturing it, the answer to this depends on the herb. Some herbs respond better to one method than the other. Dried herbs also don’t contain water, so the final alcohol level is more predictable. This is where personal research on the chosen herb is conducted to determine whether any methods are recommended. Generally speaking, though, dried herbs will give you more stable results and a lower risk of spoilage.

Do you wash the fresh herbs? Not if I don’t have to. Extra water changes things, so I avoid it. If you do wash your herbs make sure to dry them completely. Fresh roots will need to be scrubbed, of course.

Favorite Reference Book:

I have many herbalism reference books, but this one is a favorite for technique and basic information: Making Plant Medicine by Richo Cech

(*No monies or affiliates. All opinions are my own.)

Have a beautiful day!