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Open Source Apothecary At Home / Preparations
Ethanol strength decides which compounds your tincture contains. Choose wrong and you have made coloured alcohol.
methodA tincture is a measured extraction with an ethanol-water mixture. The single most important variable is not the plant, the ratio, or the time — it is the percentage of ethanol in the menstruum, because solubility is what determines which compounds end up in the bottle.
Ethanol strength by compound class, and the reason:
The ratio is the other half of the dose. A "1:5" tincture is 1 part dried herb by weight to 5 parts solvent by volume; "1:2" is stronger. Without a ratio, "a dropperful" of one bottle and a dropperful of another can differ several-fold. Always write the ratio on the label. Fresh plant material is normally made at 1:2 because it contains about 70-80% water and that water dilutes the menstruum, so a fresh-plant tincture made at 1:5 with 60% ethanol is really extracting at a much lower effective ethanol concentration.
Maceration time. Two to six weeks with agitation is traditional and adequate for most material; extraction is fastest in the first days and asymptotes. There is no evidence that a six-month maceration is better than a six-week one for most plants, and it is worse for volatile material because it gives more time for oxidation.
Pressing and finishing. Press the marc hard — a large share of the finished tincture is held in the spent plant material. Let the pressed liquid stand for a day so suspended particulate settles, then decant or filter. Tinctures are self-preserving above roughly 20% ethanol by volume, so they need no refrigeration; they do need a dark bottle, a tight cap, and a cool place.
What a tincture cannot do. It cannot carry a mineral, because minerals are ionic and insoluble in ethanol-water in any useful amount, and it cannot reliably carry a compound whose trial evidence came from a standardised commercial extract at a specified dose.
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Equipment
Making a 1:5 tincture at 60% ethanol — example
1. Weigh 100 g dried, coarsely ground herb into the jar. 2. Make the menstruum: to reach 60% from 95% ethanol, use 63 mL of 95% ethanol topped up to 100 mL with water, per 100 mL needed. For 500 mL of menstruum: 315 mL of 95% ethanol + 185 mL water. 3. Pour 500 mL of menstruum over the herb; the herb should stay submerged (add more solvent if it swells above the liquid). 4. Cap, shake daily, macerate 2-6 weeks in a dark place at room temperature. 5. Strain through muslin, then press the marc hard and add the pressed liquid. 6. Let stand 24 hours, decant off the sediment, filter. 7. Bottle in amber glass. Label with the date, the plant, the part, the ratio and the ethanol percentage. The ratio and the strength are the dose.
Choosing the strength
| Material | Ethanol | |---|---| | Leaf and soft aerial parts | 40-50% | | Root, bark, seed | 60-70% | | Resin, gum, oleoresin | 80-95% | | Tannin-dominant (e.g. oak, green tea) or high-mucilage | 20-30%, or use a cold infusion/glycerite instead |
Fresh plant adjustment. Fresh material is 70-80% water, so use the absolute ethanol arithmetic, not the label: to get 60% in the final menstruum when the plant contributes ~75% of its own weight as water, use a higher-strength ethanol. Or simpler and more reliable: dry the material first and make a dried-herb tincture.
Shelf life. 3-5 years for ethanol-based tinctures stored dark and cool. Alcohol evaporates over years in a poorly sealed bottle, which changes the concentration and can eventually allow microbial growth.