The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook_ A Home Manual - James Green [42]
This development of ever more complex systems of extraction has been a highly creative adventure in the world of pharmacy, and this has served the purpose of many. But all and all, for those individuals who are once again inclined to focus on the profound subtle energy of the plant more than on the technologies of physical extraction, no advancement beyond the fundamental rituals that derive infusions, decoctions, concentrates, and tinctures is required. Undeniably, extraction techniques that are more technologically elaborate or complex than these have provided many an adventurous herbalist with inspired enjoyment and the pleasure of satisfying their technological curiosity. Obviously, these laboratory furtherances have also allowed medical industries to produce plant-derived pharmaceutical drugs and herbal industries to manufacture standardized quasi-drugs. However, the potent simplicities of the fundamental extraction processes we will pursue in this home manual require no further complexity to serve the purposes of a conscientious lay herbalist. The simple alchemical acts of infusing, decocting, digesting, tincturing, and compounding medicinal plants are as sublime, complete, and transformative today as they were when our ancestors originally devised them.
Regardless of the technology employed, the intent and joy of the medicine-maker coupled with the consciousness of the harvester’s relationship with the plant remains the truly empowering heart and the salient spirit of Herbalism and herbal medicine-making. Uncomplicated, ardent medicine-making is as fundamental to the art and science of Herbalism as simple passionate cooking is to the art and science of nutrition. High technology has never increased the nutritional power of good food, simply prepared.
EXTRACTION
The purpose for extraction is to draw out an herb’s unique organization of chemical components along with its distinctive energetic virtues, and render these organic idiosyncrasies into a form that is more easily absorbable, possibly more concentrated, more palatable, and more convenient to administer than the original unprocessed form of the plant.
Maceration, or soaking a plant in a solvent, is performed to draw into a liquid solution the soluble constituents of the plant and to separate this solution from the insoluble residue or the marc. This liquid extract can be dispensed directly as is, or it can be readily incorporated into other delivery vehicles by mixing it with honeys, syrups, waxes, foods, and so on.
Alcohol, water-alcohol, and to some extent glycerin extracts offer the lay herbalist an added benefit of a greatly prolonged preservative action.
Extraction allows us to have our herbs for a long time and makes it easier for us to eat them too.
WHAT GOES ON DURING THE EXTRACTION PROCESS
When a freshly harvested plant is dried, the moisture present in the tissues evaporates. The walls of the cells and the ducts shrink, and at the same time the substances inside the cells previously held in solution by the water crystallize or dry to a solid amorphous mass. Later, when this dehydrated plant is immersed in a water (aqueous) or water-alcohol (hydro-alcoholic) menstruum, the above process is reversed. In this instance, the menstruum is absorbed, causing the cells to swell and break, leading to direct contact with the menstruum and the soluble materials inside the cells go back into solution.
In the case of dried plants whose tissues are relatively soft or spongy, such as Burdock root or Nettle root, this process takes place comparatively fast; however, when a plant material is hard or callous, such as dried WildYam, Stone Root, Oregon Grape root, or Turmeric, much more time is required. Before the tissues of these plants can absorb a sufficient amount of menstruum, they must be broken up into fine pieces in order to expose