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than glycerin does—which is often an objectionable occurrence. Glycerin abstracts and holds tannates (it is said to have the capacity to absorb nearly its own weight of tannic acid), and therefore is exceptionally effective when incorporated as a portion of a menstruum for herbs containing tannins, as it reduces, if not eliminates, the precipitating action in a solution where tannins contact alkaloids, a condition which can greatly interfere with the activity of the alkaloids. In many respects, glycerin resembles water as a menstruum more than it does alcohol. Glycerin will not dissolve or mix with resins or fixed oils, so it is not suitable for resinous or oily herb extracts. And although it is a good solvent for a few alkaloids, it is generally inferior to water, vinegar, and alcohol for extracting most alkaloidal structures. Glycerin does not extract volatile oils very efficiently, but it readily mixes with them and preserves them for a short time. When diluted with water or aromatic hydrosols (see Chapter Ten), glycerin is demulcent and emollient, lubricating, soothing, and protecting to the skin and mucous membranes. When used undiluted, it acts as an irritant that arouses activity. Glycerin readily absorbs water from the air and is useful for keeping substances moist. It does not ferment or evaporate at ordinary temperatures, but it does vaporize readily from a water solution at 212° F. Glycerin, when undiluted, boils at 329° F.

WINE

Wine as a menstruum can produce some delightful herbal infusions, as its solvent action is akin to an alcohol-water menstruum. Macerating herbs in wine is a highly creative arena in which to experiment. However, due to wine’s naturally low alcohol content, a saturated wine extract might not hold up against the process of deterioration over an extended period of time unless more alcohol is added to ensure its stability, especially during warm weather.

At one time, there were several medicated wines and two natural wines considered official medicines in this country (meaning they were recognized in the official U.S. Pharmacopoeia and later in the National Formulary). Some of these medicated wines, such as Antimony wine and Colchicinum wine, were in fact very potent allopathic medicines, an improper dose of the later being fatal. But in time wines lost favor, due to the fact that it was found impossible to formulate tests whereby spurious wines could be positively recognized and distinguished from the pure ones. However, this is no longer an issue for us today with the vast array of legitimate local wineries currently in action.

Traditionally, white wines were preferred as menstrua for making medicinal wines because of their small proportion of tannins (sherry was the strongest white wine and therefore the most frequently used, and port was the most frequently used red wine). In the case of red wines, the skin of the grape is allowed to remain with the expressed juice during fermentation, and the astringent dark coloring-matter in the skin contains large amounts of tannin. This can be a problem when infusing herbs that are high in sought-after alkaloids because, as previously noted, tannins precipitate and therein pull out of solution these alkaloidal components. Official wine menstrua were required to contain 16 percent to 24 percent alcohol (which wine does not contain naturally), so these wines were fortified with pure grape brandy, which sounds to me like the makings of good medicine.

OIL

There are two kinds of oil, fixed oil and volatile. However, volatile oils (a.k.a. essential oils, aromatic oils) are not really oils at all. They are only referred to as oils because they blend with oil quite readily and they react with water much like fixed oils do. Chemically volatile oils have next to nothing in common with fixed oils, lacking both fatty acids and glycerin. They are referred to as “volatile” because, unlike fixed oils, they evaporate readily when exposed to air. We’ll focus on volatile oils and their complementary aromatic hydrosols in Chapter Ten and continue this section