The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook_ A Home Manual - James Green [59]
When in doubt, use “dilute alcohol” as a menstruum.
Tannins
Tannins are non-nitrogenous bodies that have an astringent taste and action on body proteins, rendering a protective layer on the mucous membranes and skin. They strike a blue-black or a green-black color with ferric (iron) salts. Widely distributed, especially in barks and leaves, most tannins form precipitates with alkaloids, albumin (protein), and many metallic salts, particularly iron salts. For this reason, they are of special interest to medicine-makers who would avoid the preparation of unsightly mixtures (for example, combinations of Goldenseal with Oak or Anemopsis) or of dangerous alkaloidal precipitates. Powerful alkaloids, thus precipitated, would be apt to be taken in the last doses of a bottle of medicine in which there had been a failure to “shake the bottle before using.” The inclusion of glycerin in an extracting menstruum for a tannin-containing plant will bind the tannins, so they will not readily precipitate any accompanying alkaloids. Tannins are very soluble in water, soluble in glycerin, and somewhat soluble in alcohol. One can achieve an excellent “tannin tincture” using a menstruum of merely 20 percent alcohol, 80 percent water.
Waxes (Cerae)
Waxes are compounds of fatty acids with certain alcohols. They differ from fats in that they contain no glycerin. They melt when heated and are brittle at low temperatures. They come in varying degrees of solidity. Examples: beeswax, Carnuba wax.
SUMMARY
Since most medicinal plants are made up of representatives from several of the above-mentioned constituents, categorized as either active or ballast substances, the extraction agents should not be geared solely to any individual substance. Alcohol concentrations of 40 percent (sometimes less) to 60 percent (sometimes more) are customarily utilized, according to the official instructions given in most pharmacopoeia. Therefore, venturing resolutely into the risky arena of publicly stating a personal opinion in current herbal literature, I offer the following, experience-based summation of that which has gone before … to beginning students of herbal medicine-making who are faced with the task and awesome responsibility of formulating a suitable water-alcohol base menstruum for making an extract, I boldly suggest: when in doubt, use “dilute alcohol” as a menstruum. This is a very practical solution. There is sufficient amount of both water and alcohol to adequately dissolve the components of any plant and there is enough alcohol to preserve most any solution. One hundred-proof vodka is a dilute alcohol (approximately 50 percent absolute ethyl alcohol, 50 percent water) which is available at any liquor store for your use, whereas 190-proof grain ethyl alcohol is not so readily available.
For our purposes, merely divide the proof number (found on all commercial alcoholic beverage labels) by 2 to determine the percentage of absolute ethyl alcohol by volume contained in the product. An 80-proof vodka or gin, for example, is (approximately) 40 percent absolute ethyl alcohol, 60 percent other liquid; a 150-proof rum is (approximately) 75 percent absolute ethyl alcohol, 25 percent other liquid.
Herbal medicines can be prepared in different forms or “vehicles.” These preparations are designed for efficient delivery of herbal actions and nutrients to the body and mind, and, if they are to be stored any length of time, for efficiency of preservation. It is not convenient to administer Saw Palmetto or Uva Ursi, for instance, in the form of berries and leaves, respectively. It would be a disagreeable task for an individual, an ailing person in particular, to chew these crude forms of the plant remedies. And likewise, it would be