Herbs or tincture

[Smile21]

Hi there, just looking into whether people prefer to use Herbs or Tinctures? Does one work better than the other? Specifically Cleaver & Marigold from Hilton Herbs… thank you

 

[PurBee]

I make tinctures and i prefer to buy or grow whole herbs to make my own tinctures. Not all tinctures are created equally in terms of extraction method and potency of the tincture.
I make triple extraction tinctures, containing the soluble minerals of the plant too - yet you’ll be lucky to find potent double extraction tinctures.

Many herbs have water soluble compounds and oil soluble compounds, so ideally most herbs therefore need a double extraction method.…one with water (depending on herb also depends on temp/time of extraction) and one with alcohol. Then both extractions are combined to form a double extracted tincture.

With many available tinctures the herbs are soaked in water or alcohol for a few weeks, strained, then 20% alcohol added as a preservative or diluted with water if it was a pure alcohol bath. 15-20 quid charge for 50ml which essentially is a cup of tea of that herb, probably not extracted properly.

To make a really good quality tincture takes time/patience/knowledge of the herb and what healing compounds it contains - therefore knowing what temperatures are required for extraction so these constituents are not damaged via an overly aggressive extraction method. Not all herbs therefore are extracted the same way.
I’ve only ever found 1 or 2 Etsy sellers who do full potency double extracted tinctures.

I’d buy the whole herb unless you find a strong 1:1/1:2 potency double extracted tincture.

Specifically for cleavers and marigold theres water and oil healing constituents you want to avail of from the herbs. So that wants to be a double extraction tincture. If you can find one, then thats worth using.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Dried marigold and cleavers are readily available, and are cheap enough. The horses love them.

Why would you go to the faff of buying/making tinctures?

 

[PurBee]

Dried marigold and cleavers are readily available, and are cheap enough. The horses love them.

Why would you go to the faff of buying/making tinctures?

Tinctures are super-concentrated herbal remedies when made correctly. They’re more ideal for acute cases of illness due to their potency (again, if made well)

You can add 1 pipette to feed that is the equivelent of feeding 4 huge handfulls of fresh herbs.
Dried herbs lose many water-based healing compounds in the drying process.
Tinctures made from fresh herbs capture in concentrated amounts ALL the healing benefits.

Ingestion of dried herbs is far easier to feed daily to horses as a low dose herbal remedy ‘boost’ to the diet, in non-acute cases.

 

[Smile21]

I make tinctures and i prefer to buy or grow whole herbs to make my own tinctures. Not all tinctures are created equally in terms of extraction method and potency of the tincture.
I make triple extraction tinctures, containing the soluble minerals of the plant too - yet you’ll be lucky to find potent double extraction tinctures.

Many herbs have water soluble compounds and oil soluble compounds, so ideally most herbs therefore need a double extraction method.…one with water (depending on herb also depends on temp/time of extraction) and one with alcohol. Then both extractions are combined to form a double extracted tincture.

With many available tinctures the herbs are soaked in water or alcohol for a few weeks, strained, then 20% alcohol added as a preservative or diluted with water if it was a pure alcohol bath. 15-20 quid charge for 50ml which essentially is a cup of tea of that herb, probably not extracted properly.

To make a really good quality tincture takes time/patience/knowledge of the herb and what healing compounds it contains - therefore knowing what temperatures are required for extraction so these constituents are not damaged via an overly aggressive extraction method. Not all herbs therefore are extracted the same way.
I’ve only ever found 1 or 2 Etsy sellers who do full potency double extracted tinctures.

I’d buy the whole herb unless you find a strong 1:1/1:2 potency double extracted tincture.

Specifically for cleavers and marigold theres water and oil healing constituents you want to avail of from the herbs. So that wants to be a double extraction tincture. If you can find one, then thats worth using.

Thank you !

 

[Smile21]

Thank you !

Hilton Herb Cheaver & Marigold Tinctures is 1:3 so I’m guessing the actual herb is probably better in this case. Thanks for taking the time to reply with so much explanation

 

[PurBee]

Hilton Herb Cheaver & Marigold Tinctures is 1:3 so I’m guessing the actual herb is probably better in this case. Thanks for taking the time to reply with so much explanation

Depending on your horses taste likeness for the herbs, and your time schedule!…you’d get more medicinal value from the dried herbs if you make tea from them. 1 tablespoon herb added to a cup of boiling water…allow to steep and cool and add the whole lot to a bowl mash feed to disguise it in. You could pre-make a flask full for a few days feed, to save you doing it daily. It’ll stay fresh in a cool place for upto 3 days.

 

[Mick2313]

Depending on your horses taste likeness for the herbs, and your time schedule!…you’d get more medicinal value from the dried herbs if you make tea from them. 1 tablespoon herb added to a cup of boiling water…allow to steep and cool and add the whole lot to a bowl mash feed to disguise it in. You could pre-make a flask full for a few days feed, to save you doing it daily. It’ll stay fresh in a cool place for upto 3 days.

Hey, I wonder if I could ask your advice on this please? I feed my horse dried marigold & cleavers (m&c) as he suffers from lymphangitis. Fairly regularly through the summer though he won’t eat his feeds as he’s full of grass so doesnt get the m&c (causing lymphangitis flare ups). I was looking at buying the tincture version but it’s so expensive! I’ll obviously buy it if needed for the days he won’t eat a feed however, Do you think your tea suggestion above would work enough if I orally syringed in just the liquid tea? Or would it need to have all the bits as well really?
Any advice appreciated!

 

[PurBee]

Hey, I wonder if I could ask your advice on this please? I feed my horse dried marigold & cleavers (m&c) as he suffers from lymphangitis. Fairly regularly through the summer though he won’t eat his feeds as he’s full of grass so doesnt get the m&c (causing lymphangitis flare ups). I was looking at buying the tincture version but it’s so expensive! I’ll obviously buy it if needed for the days he won’t eat a feed however, Do you think your tea suggestion above would work enough if I orally syringed in just the liquid tea? Or would it need to have all the bits as well really?
Any advice appreciated!

That’s an excellent alternative to buying tinctures. The world of tincture marketing is a minefield and theres a huge variance in strength and quality. The weak tea tinctures won’t bother giving the herb:liquid ratio strength, but still charge ‘good quality very concentrated and strong’ tincture prices.

Your idea is an excellent alternative. Give a strained syringe of the brew instead. You could do a large 10 day dose batch you refrigerate and make a stronger decoction by simmering the herb in a pan of water for 20 mins. Simmer, not rolling boil. Bring up to boiling then allow to gentle simmer for 20 mins. Cool and strain and keep the mixture in the fridge.
If you wanted to do a large batch to last syringing him for the whole summer season, you could do a pan simmer of a larger amount, cool then strain and freeze the liquid. Defrost as you need to use it. Ice-cube bags would work well.

Its up to you how strong you make it - for example if you’ve got 1kg of herbs in a pan and then added 1 litre of water, then simmered for 20 mins, that would be a very potent 1:1 ratio strength. You will likely find the 1 ltr of water wont cover 1kg of herb, and you’d have to keep stirring and agitating it to get all the herb extracted.
The preferred method is to cover the herb with water - i like to soak the herb in water for many hours in a cool place, so the herb through soaking is given time to fully open its cell walls and releasing it compounds. The simmering 20 minute heat is then applied after soaking to sterilise and release the heat-sensitive compounds. Then i allow it to full cool, strain by squeezing out every drop from the herb using a muslin cloth and then bottle.
If you soak then simmer, you can be more certain that youve extracted more of the goodness in the herb and whats left of the herb will mainly be fibrous content.
You might find your horse will even eat the fibrous pulp after extraction.

Have a small taste of your brew to judge how your horse will like it. They tend to not mind bitter tastes like us - mature dandelion leaves make me gag because theyre so bitter to my taste, but my horses love them! But severely bitter taste might put them off. You wont fully know until you give the syringe and the reaction you get!
If your horse takes offence at the stronger syringe batch, you could always add some carrot juice, orange or apple juice as a slight sweetener/ taste enhancer.
Bitter+ sweet taste together tends to fool the brain the overall taste is acceptable.

 

[Mick2313]

That’s an excellent alternative to buying tinctures. The world of tincture marketing is a minefield and theres a huge variance in strength and quality. The weak tea tinctures won’t bother giving the herb:liquid ratio strength, but still charge ‘good quality very concentrated and strong’ tincture prices.

Your idea is an excellent alternative. Give a strained syringe of the brew instead. You could do a large 10 day dose batch you refrigerate and make a stronger decoction by simmering the herb in a pan of water for 20 mins. Simmer, not rolling boil. Bring up to boiling then allow to gentle simmer for 20 mins. Cool and strain and keep the mixture in the fridge.
If you wanted to do a large batch to last syringing him for the whole summer season, you could do a pan simmer of a larger amount, cool then strain and freeze the liquid. Defrost as you need to use it. Ice-cube bags would work well.

Its up to you how strong you make it - for example if you’ve got 1kg of herbs in a pan and then added 1 litre of water, then simmered for 20 mins, that would be a very potent 1:1 ratio strength. You will likely find the 1 ltr of water wont cover 1kg of herb, and you’d have to keep stirring and agitating it to get all the herb extracted.
The preferred method is to cover the herb with water - i like to soak the herb in water for many hours in a cool place, so the herb through soaking is given time to fully open its cell walls and releasing it compounds. The simmering 20 minute heat is then applied after soaking to sterilise and release the heat-sensitive compounds. Then i allow it to full cool, strain by squeezing out every drop from the herb using a muslin cloth and then bottle.
If you soak then simmer, you can be more certain that youve extracted more of the goodness in the herb and whats left of the herb will mainly be fibrous content.
You might find your horse will even eat the fibrous pulp after extraction.

Have a small taste of your brew to judge how your horse will like it. They tend to not mind bitter tastes like us - mature dandelion leaves make me gag because theyre so bitter to my taste, but my horses love them! But severely bitter taste might put them off. You wont fully know until you give the syringe and the reaction you get!
If your horse takes offence at the stronger syringe batch, you could always add some carrot juice, orange or apple juice as a slight sweetener/ taste enhancer.
Bitter+ sweet taste together tends to fool the brain the overall taste is acceptable.

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply in such details, that’s been fantastic help. I just wasn’t sure if the dried herbs would make a strong enough tea to be worthwhile so this is great information. We have cleavers growing locally I can access regularly too if he needs a top up should he prefer the weaker tea thanks for the tip about adding a juice too! Fingers crossed!