The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook_ A Home Manual - James Green [58]
Oleoresins (Oleoresinae)
Resins often occur in more or less homogeneous mixtures with volatile oils; these mixtures are known as oleoresins. They are soluble in alcohol and fixed oils, and insoluble in water (see “Balsams”). Example: Turpentine from conifers.
Proteins
Albumin is a class of protein found in many vegetable tissues and fluids as well as in animal tissues. Albumin is soluble in water, insoluble in alcohol, and is coagulated by heat. Those individuals who believe that a plant’s medicinal action is due solely to its so-called “active” principles regard these proteins along with other “inactive” substances (gums, etc.) to be inert, mostly useless, and, all in all, a bother, merely causing unsightly cloudy solutions and ultimate putrefaction of the preparation. Other experts disagree and revere the synergism of the natural organization of the whole plant as the active component. To avoid extraction or to remove proteins from a preparation, one can:
• Use 190-proof absolute alcohol as a menstruum;
• Precipitate the dissolved proteins from a water extraction by adding alcohol afterwards; or
• Coagulate and precipitate the albumin with heat by either boiling the plant as part of the extraction process, or by boiling the completed water extract and filtering the solution.
Resins (Resinae)
Resins are non-volatile excretions or secretions of very indefinite composition, and are chiefly oxidation products of essential oils. Resins are soluble in alcohol, fixed oils, and essential oils, and insoluble in water. Resins will melt at a temperature near to that of boiling water. Examples: Myrrh, Frankincense.
Saponins
Saponins are plant components that possess the unique characteristic of foaming when shaken with water, even when very dilute. They have the ability to hold finely divided fatty and resinous substances in perfect suspension in aqueous mixtures, producing emulsions of great stability. This is what a soap does that helps remove oil from hands and cleans greasy dishware. Internally, many saponins have direct medicinal effects such as those found in Ginseng, Horse Chestnut, Licorice, and Wild Yam. Other saponins are quite toxic (sapotoxins). With few exceptions, saponins are readily soluble in water and also soluble in dilute alcohol.
Starches
Starches are one of the most important derivatives of plant cells. They are insoluble in ordinary solvents, but swell in boiling water to form a peculiar jelly-like or mucilaginous paste (starch paste). Examples: Cornstarch, Arrowroot, Tapioca.
Sugars (Sacchara)
In their most basic form, simple sugars present themselves as single sugar units and are commonly referred to in science-lingo (not so simply) as monosaccharides. Saccharide comes from the Greek word sakcharon, which means sugar (around and around goes the scientific name game). These sugars have a sweet taste, are soluble in water, and soluble in dilute alcohol. Two to ten (or so) sugar units linked together are called oligosaccharides. A huge number of sugars linked together are referred to as polysaccharides. Polysaccharides don’t taste sweet and are not very soluble. They are high molecular weight compounds found in almost all living tissue. They make up the skeletal substances in the cell walls of higher plants (i.e., cellulose), the food reservoirs (i.e., starches), or the protective substances (i.e., exudate gums or sap).
GAIA’S SWEET SUGAR-FILLED FORMULA
FOR OUR LIVES
CO2 + H2O (in the presence of chlorophyll and light) = CH2O + O2
I’ve been told this should actually be, 6 CO2 + 6 H2O = C6H12O6 (glucose) + 6 O2 but I’m sorry, to me that’s just not as poetic. So, in other words: Animal out-breath combined with pure water within the precious chlorophyll-full bodies of our herbs, in the presence of sunlight, yields food-full carbohydrates and free oxygen for animal in-breaths. Amen.
“Absolute alcohol” (100 percent ethyl alcohol)