Why are Tinctures Made With Alcohol?

The type of alcohol used most often in medicine making is ethanol or ‘drinking alcohol’. The affectionate names of ethanol: aqua vitae, spirits, the Water of Life, and booze, conjure potion-like images in the imagination. As they should, since ‘aqua vitae’ was borne of the alchemical process. Legend ascribes the discovery of distillation and of aqua vitae to the alchemist Geber (Jábir-ibn-Hayyán). Other accounts say an Arabic alchemist named Rhazes discovered alcohol. Either way, distillation and the discovery of alcohol comes to us from what we now know as the Middle East. The word alcohol itself is derived from an Arabic word for a fine powder women used to stain their eyes, essentially evoking the meaning of ‘fine essence’.

From Dale Pendell (Pharmako/Poeia 2010, p. 72):

“The essential principle underlying the discovery is that the intrinsic power within the plant, or in this case within the wine, is an entity that can be extracted and collected with tools and the proper ritual. Nothing really new there, from a shamanic standpoint, other than the nature of the tools themselves: a retort instead of a bull-roarer, and a furnace instead of a drum.

Not the wine, but something within the wine.

And imagine the excitement when they found it: a clear, light liquid like water but not water — finer than water, more sparkling than water. It was the essence, the quintessence, the vital principle of the wine. And they named it water of life: a liquid that burns with a sulphurous blue flame.”

It is fermentation taken a few steps further, through distillation (the essence separated from the ‘crude’ fermented product), we obtain the essence of the grape, or neutral grape spirits. We eventually learned to pull the essence from other plants in similar ways, notably from various grains and cane sugar.

So why is alcohol widely used in the process of herbal medicine making, specifically in making tinctures? Well, initially it was used as a way of preserving plant juices in the form of a ‘succus’ (expressed juice of a plant preserved in alcohol), as alcohol preserves herbs for years, even decades, while simultaneously extracting a wide spectrum of medicinal properties from them. Eventually we learned that we could adjust the alcohol level for different plants to appropriately extract the constituents within, bringing us to the preparation of herbal tinctures.

In short, alcohol allows the most effective extraction of plant properties (including ingredients that aren't quite as water-soluble, such as essential oils, alkaloids and resins) while preserving the herbal preparation much longer than water-extraction methods.

Most of the preparations we make at First Curve Apothecary (aside from herbal teas and skincare products) are in tincture form. Check out our herbal tinctures, aromatic & cocktail bitters, and mushroom extracts to begin integrating herbal supplements into your daily routine!

~~~

This article is a shortened version of a longer post originally published in the Greenspell Virtual Garden

If you enjoyed this article, and are interested in a deeper dive into the world of herbalism, ecology, and holistic health, consider signing up for the Greenspell Community & Virtual Garden.

This monthly membership offers a growing community of nature lovers, potion makers, and herbalists in the Chicago Region along with an ever evolving, online knowledge-base offering self-directed courses, plant profiles, and resources related to the study of herbalism, ecology, and herbal-medicine making of the Great Lakes Bioregion. Click the link above to learn more!

Also in Herbal Preparations