The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook_ A Home Manual - James Green [100]
MEDICATED VINEGARS
Medicinal or medicated vinegars are liquid preparations intended for internal or external use and are made by macerating medicinal or culinary plants in vinegar (dilute acetic acid). This type of preparation is an eminently old one, having been in use since the days of Hippocrates, and medicinal vinegars represent one of the oldest classes of herbal Galenicals. As a menstruum, vinegar facilitates the action of stimulants for use as external applications; it augments and hastens the action of expectorants, and is most useful for preparing stimulant, astringent, and tonic gargles. Vinegar tinctures in turn can be converted into either syrups or oxymels, for internal use (see Chapter Twenty-Two for instruction on making syrups and oxymels).
Long before distilled spirits were known, the ancients recognized the solvent powers of vinegar, and they also realized that products made with vinegar kept for a much longer period of time (due to its antiseptic properties) than did the infusions and the decoctions prepared solely with water. Also, in time it was found that for the most part pure alkaloids, which are a highly active component in many medicinal plants, are not soluble in water, but that alkaloidal salts, which are formed upon the reaction of free based alkaloids with acids, are usually quite soluble in water. The advantage of using acidic menstrua became apparent, and experience proved the value of vinegar as a solvent in exhausting the drugs of this character, such as Goldenseal, Lobelia, Sanguinaria, and other alkaloid-containing plants.
PRESERVATION AND STORAGE
Pure vinegar is a food product that fits well in the kitchen environment, and therefore with minimal attention does well in the home pharmacy. When good, vinegar presents an agreeable penetrating odor and a pleasant acidic sour taste. When long kept, particularly if exposed to air, it can become muddy and ropy, acquire an unpleasant smell, putrefy, and lose its acidity. This may be prevented to some extent if the vinegar is boiled (pasteurized) for a few minutes, so as to coagulate and separate the gluten. The vinegar is then filtered and immediately poured into bottles and capped. This heating process possibly destroys many of the natural virtues of pure vinegar. The best way to keep one’s vinegar wholesome is to keep it stored in a cool, dark location, capped, limiting its exposure to air. Medicated vinegars are kept in the same way.
In regard to the shelf life of medicinal, tonic, and culinary vinegars, my experience challenges those authorities who judge vinegar as a wimpy preservative. Just don’t dilute it any further by adding water. For this reason, it is advisable to make vinegar infusions using dried plant instead of fresh plant. The water content of fresh plants can enter into the solution and dilute the vinegar to a less than 5 percent acetic acid.
I have one formula sitting on my shelf in a large amber gallon jug (Dr. John Christopher’s classic Plague Formula—he used this term as a general reference to any pestilence including the flu). I assembled it more than twenty years ago. I also bottled some smaller pint jars full of this batch at the same time, then dipped the tops of all the bottles in hot wax to seal them. They’ve all been kicking around with me ever since. I’m mentioning this because recently we broke into one of the small flasks to see how it withstood its time exposure. Gleefully, I can report that its potency and integrity are holding up just fine. This formula consists of apple cider vinegar and a little glycerin, as co-preservatives along with some fresh pressed garlic juice and an amalgamation of nine herbal concentrates: Oak Bark, Mullein, Scullcap, Lobelia, Comfrey (before a defamation bandwagon proclaimed it toxic), Hyssop, Hydrangea, Plantain, and Wormwood. Needless to say, there are no words that can adequately