Freshly pressed St. John's Wort tincture!
I thought I might start sharing some of my formulations with you lovely people. I made this particular formula for use during chiropractic care. I have been learning about St. John's Wort's ability to aid in healing nerve pain, so I just had to try it out! Its yellow flowers are blooming everywhere here in California, so I took that as a sure sign to harvest the beauty. And the red hue that occurs in the tincture making process makes it such a joy to work with!
My favorite medicine making book to use is written by Rico Cech of Horizon Herbs, which happens to be my favorite seed company! The book goes over processing the herbs, appropriate formulations, dosage, and much more. I find it very useful when checking out how much alcohol and water (also known as menstrum) I should use in ratio to plant matter. Some plants hold more water than others so you'll need more or less alcohol to draw out it's healing constituents. Factors like this make it important to do your research before making your medicine!
This week I did a fresh plant tincture of St. John's Wort in 100% grain alcohol at a 1:2 ratio. Most fresh plant tinctures are at a 1:2 ratio, 1 being the plant and 2 being the menstrum (here it is just 100% alcohol, but with some tinctures you will need to add some water). I pressed out the luscious red tincture after a month of maceration and poured it off into a dosage bottle. I then added 10% Prickly Ash for extra pain relief.
If any of this is over your head, do not worry! It has taken me time and practice to understand these concepts. I am going to be posting some simple instructional posts on tincture making very soon for all you new herbalists out there!
