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By Root 909 0

coffee bean grinder (a mortar and blade) has become the second-generation mortar and pestle, the modern lay herbalist’s pulverizing tool of choice. Metal hand-powered grain mills, small electric coffee bean mills, and older model (stainless steel type) Vita-Mix blenders are excellent tools for grinding all but the hardest of herbal material; however, nothing short of a rock crusher can pulverize dried Turmeric, dried Wild Yam, or dried Red Root. You have to shred dense plant materials like Turmeric and Wild Yam while they are still fresh (undried) by using a cheese grater or an electric food processor and then dry them. You need to use pruning shears or a heavy-duty lopper to process dense woody roots like Red Root and Oregon Grape root. Later you will be able to powder the thin dried shreds and woody slices for extraction.

The device used to measure the fineness of a powder is the sieve. If a sieve has 20 meshes (holes) to a linear inch the powder that passes through it is called a No. 20 powder, which is referred to in pharmacy as a “coarse powder”; a 40 mesh sieve renders a No. 40 “moderately coarse powder”; a 50 mesh gives a “moderately fine powder”; a 60 mesh count supplies us a “fine powder”; and an 80 mesh lays out a “very fine powder” indeed. Numbers 20, 40, and 50 are intended for herbs that are to be macerated and percolated, while 60 and 80 are used more for pills, lozenges, dispensed or capsulated powders, and suspensions.

From my kitchen drawers, I dug out four well-stained sieves I’ve had around my house for years. Measuring their screens, I found that one of the sieves has a 16-mesh count per inch (I guess that gives me a No. 16 “uncouth powder”); one has 30-mesh count; one has 28, and the fourth one is a bamboo sieve that refuses to conform in any way to a linear evaluation (an East meets West thing). Therefore, for our lay purposes a common household sieve or sifter will gives us a “coarse” to a “moderately coarse powder” (mcp) which is most often all we need for our work (except when making lozenges). “High tech” European sieves sold in department store kitchen supply centers will give you a finer powder.

Water softens and easily penetrates powdered herb, causing the powder to expand; however, alcohol has a hardening effect as it thoroughly dehydrates plant material, leaving behind only hardened cellulose and other plant solids. A menstruum containing 60 percent or more absolute alcohol tends to harden plant tissue, so a finer powder is more efficient for those plants requiring a strongly alcoholic menstruum (Cayenne, Myrrh, Gumweed, Milk Thistle, etc.).

Powdering should be done only just prior to your actual need for it. Once powdered, many of the plant’s constituents dissipate rapidly with the passage of time; store your herbs in as whole a state as practical in order to inhibit oxidation and loss of volatile oils.

Prior to rendering resinous or gummy plants into powder, place them in the freezer for a couple of hours. The frozen, (temporarily) brittle plant material will grind up quickly and is far less likely to coat the inside surfaces of your machine with tenacious substance. If you choose not to do this, denatured rubbing alcohol is a good, inexpensive cleaning solvent (never to be used as a menstruum for internal use, however) which then can be removed from the machine with water and soap.

Powders. Herbal powders can be administered in capsules or orally as is by being placed on the tongue and chased by a drink of water or other liquid. If the dosage to be taken is large, you can first mix the powder with a liquid. Mixing powders with honey, syrup, or jam will assist in masking any unpleasant taste (see Chapter Twenty-Two, “Syrups, Honeys, Oxymels, and Electuaries”), and bitterness can be partially overcome by dissolving the powder in sweet fruit juice. Some herbalist practitioners believe that due to the fact the digestive process must extract the properties of the herb(s), this process provides a slower and more even absorption; therefore, lower doses of the powders are required to produce