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* It is important to clean and wipe off the rim of the jar thoroughly before placing the lid on the jar and tightening it down. It is even advisable after wiping the rim to place a piece of waxed paper between the rim and the lid of the jar as a gasket. This assures that a tight seal will be made preventing the loss of any menstruum that can occur due to constant shaking of the liquid contents. You will know if there has been any leakage by the discovery of narrow streams of extract appearing on the outside surface of the jar.

There is a perennial debate amongst herbal medicine-makers and herbal extract manufacturers as to the superiority and practicality of percolation versus that of maceration. We probably won’t resolve the issue in this chapter, but as you will see, we’ll definitely grapple with the question. Maceration (extracting soluble constituents by simply soaking them in a solvent) is one of the oldest methods of extraction known to human medicine-makers. Percolation is a process having a relatively late introduction into Western pharmacy, but which quickly caught the fancy and blazing fervor of professional pharmacists and erudite herbalists. It is a process of extracting the soluble constituents of an herb by the slow passage of a solvent (mainly, but not entirely, due to the pull of gravity) through a column of dried powdered plant which has been packed in a special form of apparatus known as a percolator. Percolation is sometimes called displacement, because the solvent after becoming charged with the soluble part of the herb is displaced by fresh portions of the solvent liquid.

The question of which of these methods of extraction is the better, I guess, is best answered by stating that each has advantages and disadvantages over the other.

The percolation process can be found advantageous because:

• It offers a means of making a tincture in 24 hours (when in a huge rush, as little as 3 or 4 hours), whereas maceration ordinarily takes 10 to 14 days, sometimes longer.

• It is easier and faster to prepare more highly concentrated dry plant tinctures (1:2, 1:3) and fluid extracts (1:1).

• The soluble constituents of an herb can be removed and collected more completely by percolation than by the soaking, pressing, and filtration processes used in maceration. (However, this assertion probably incites more heated debate than the creation vs. big bang and evolution contest.)

• The liquid left in the residue (marc) and discarded after completion of a successful percolation is pure menstruum, which is a bit bothersome, but at least all the plant’s constituents dissolved in the proceeding percolate and have been collected in there entirety for use. In maceration, the liquid left in the residue is a finished full-strength tincture, which is never completely removed, and that is even more irksome.

• One does not have to press the marc. Maceration requires pressing in order to remove as much of the saturated solvent (tincture) as possible from the marc. With more highly concentrated tinctures (1:3. 1:4), 20 to 25 percent of the extract can remain in the mark if it is not pressed thoroughly, and, even when pressed thoroughly, some of the tincture (regardless of its w/v concentration) is always lost to the marc.

• Well-made, efficient presses, when available, can be expensive (percolation requires no pressing).

• Percolation offers a fascinating challenge and carries a discerning air of status for those who can do it consistently, like those few surfers who can ride the big ones—the mountain riders. Actually, percolation’s not quite as demanding as riding a 40-foot wave.

Maceration is more advantageous in the following circumstances:

• For the extraction of plants containing large amounts of gum or mucilage which swell considerably when moistened. Percolation is only suited for the extraction of close-grained plant materials which swell only a small amount.

• For the extraction of fresh undried plant material.

• For the extraction of plant materials that contain