Re: vodka for tincture: vinegar and glycerites

[Guest guest]

Herbalists up here in the northeast use a lot of apple cider

vinegar tinctures. They work fine for most soft fleshy herbs,

perhaps not so well for some of the roots and barks that have

constituants that are more resistant to extraction. It would be

useless on something like usnea that you really need everclear or

some fancy heating tricks for. You make them pretty much the same

way as you do the alcohol tinctures, plant mattter in a jar and

cover with an inch or so of organic AC vinegar (NOT that crap from

the grocery store they call AC vinegar), and do the shake and pray

every day for two weeks or more, Gail recommends six. My

cayenne vinegar is an okay linament for sore muscles. It's not as

strong as the vodkabased cayenne linament. When taking vinegars

internally as the vinegar isn't as strong you take more of it to get

the same effect. Usual dose is around a tablespoon but that

varies.

Had a hepatitis patient that had big concerns about alcohol

based tincture and didn't want the oatstraw that she asked for after

it was made. I did a new batch of oatstraw in a combination

vinegar and glycerine menstrum. Haven't gotten any feedback yet on

how well it is working or not working for her. That's the only

glycerite I've tried.

I was excited about vinegars until I did a cost comparison and

figured out that at health food store retail prices I was getting

more bang for the buck by vodka than I was the Bragg's. I like the

longer lasting and more compact alcohol based tinctures but

everything has it's place and time and a good vinegar has mucho

health properties of it's own unlike cheapo vodka.

The book The Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook by Green

has two awesome chapters on vinegars and glycerites. It's well

worth purchasing or reading at Border's and taking notes from.