I have a pint glass jar, red root cut and sifted, an 100 proof vodka.
Lost from here lol
Posted by MariaA (Member # 9128) on :
That refers to how the tincture is made:
the 1: is the number of parts (by weight, in grams) of herb. Since it's by weight, it mostly doesn't matter how it's cut or whether it's powder or whatever.
the 5: is the number of parts (in milliliters) of alcohol The 50% is the strength of the alcohol. Some vodka is only 40% I think, and that works fine too. Your vodka is 100 proof, which means it's 50%.
So to make a 1:5 tincture with your ingredients you'd do the following:
weigh out 100 grams of red root add it (in a bigger jar or bottle, I think) to 500 ml (half a liter) of vodka
If you have some other quantity of red root, just make the ratio be 1 gram herb to 5 ml alcohol.
If your herbs are measured in ounces and you don't have a scale, it's 28 grams to the ounce, or 456 grams to the pound.
a liter of vodka is a little bit more than a quart.
Posted by MariaA (Member # 9128) on :
If you don't have a scale lots of health food stores have gram scales in the store where they sell bulk herbs and spices.
Posted by MariaA (Member # 9128) on :
The theory on how long to let tinctures sit is not an exact science. Some sources say 2 weeks, some say 6 weeks. I try for 6 weeks, with occasional shaking of the jar. Starting out with smaller-cut stuff like powder should shorten the time required to leach out the active ingredients into the vodka.
in the meantime, you can use red root as a tea, there might be instructions in Buhner's book for how strong to make it.
Posted by canefan17 (Member # 22149) on :
Awesome! Thanks guys!
Can't wait to get started. Stephania, Red Root, and Knotweed(for capsules) are in the mail