These days, most medicinal herbs are available in pills and/or capsules. It’s as easy to take them as it is to take Tylenol.
Some herbs come in tinctures (alcohol extracts). Typically, the bottle includes an eyedropper cap, so it’s easy to add the recommended number of drops to a glass of water, juice, or herbal beverage tea.
But you may enjoy growing and preparing your own herbs. Or you may choose to use some herbs available only as dried bulk plant material. That can feel daunting. Don’t let it intimidate you.
Culinary herbs that also have medicinal applications—peppermint, rosemary, ginger—can be used fresh. But the convention among herbalists is to start with dried plant material, which is easier to store and resists spoiling.
Traditionally, herb growers simply tied their harvests in bunches and hung them in a warm, dry, shady place until they crumbled easily. With roots, they washed, split, and spread them in a single layer on a clean tray. These drying methods are still used today. In fact, some herb shops sell herbs in dried bunches.
However, traditional drying has two disadvantages. It often requires more room than people have, and it takes time—days to weeks for many leaves, stems, and flowers, and sometimes months for barks or roots. To preserve the volatile aromatic oils in many herbs, the faster the drying, the better. That’s why most commercial herb producers use special equipment for drying their herbs.
An easy way to dry herbs at home is to place them on a baking sheet or a piece of clean window screen in an oven on the lowest temperature setting. Oven drying is convenient and inexpensive, but it has two drawbacks. If you harvest in heat of summer, you may not want to turn on your oven. And some ovens don’t heat evenly, so some plant material may char while some doesn’t dry.
Another approach is to purchase a small produce dryer, a tabletop appliance that blows hot-air to dry not only herbs but also other produce. Ask a local nursery, check garden catalogs or Web sites, or search the Internet for “herb dryers.”
Once herbs are dry, for convenience, herbalists usually reduce them to powders. Traditional herbalists powdered herbs with mortars and pestles, a method that still works well for those processing only small amounts. Or try a small electric coffee grinder. For gardeners who produce bushels of herbs, larger grinders are available.
This may surprise those who store kitchen spices in clear glass jars, but light is one of the two biggest destroyers of herb flavor and medicinal potency. The other is oxygen.
To best preserve herbs’ medicinal constituents, store them in opaque glass or ceramic containers. Fill containers to the top to limit the amount of oxygen in them. As you use your herbs, add cotton wadding to limit oxygen in containers.
When stored carefully, aromatic herbs—sage, rosemary, thyme—can remain potent for a year or more. Nonaromatic herbs—alfalfa, uva-ursi—last considerably longer.
Moisture is another herb killer. If your herbs get wet, re-dry them quickly to prevent mold growth.
Insects may also take a toll. Drying kills many pests, but watch for signs of infestation. When not using your herbs, keep containers closed tight.
Healing herbs may be used as infusions, decoctions, tinctures, capsules, ointments, and compresses. They may also be added to baths.
Infusions are hot-water extracts. Some herbalists use the terms infusion and tea interchangeably, but the two are quite different. Infusions are prepared like teas, but they are steeped longer and become considerably stronger.
The standard traditional infusion recipe calls for ½ to 1 ounce of dried herb steeped in a pint of boiling water for 10 to 20 minutes, then strained. But infusions do not have long shelf lives and should be made as needed. So modern herbalists generally recommend 1 to 2 rounded teaspoons of dried herb per cup of boiling water, steeped for 10 to 20 minutes.
Of course, after 20 minutes, infusions are no longer hot. Drink them at room temperature or reheat.
To use fresh herbs instead of dried, double the amount of herb—2 to 4 rounded teaspoons. Compared with dried herbs, fresh ones contain more water. They’re bulkier, so you need more.
Making infusions can be as therapeutic as drinking them. While your infusion is steeping, inhale the warm, steamy vapors. For colds, flu, cough, bronchitis, and allergies, the vapors act as a nasal decongestant. As you inhale the vapors, close your eyes and visualize your immune system attacking your illness and making you well. Studies show that such meditative visualizations stimulate the immune system, marshalling the body to better fight the illness.
Some herbal infusions—chamomile, ginger, peppermint—are quite tasty. Others are horribly bitter. This is nature’s way of discouraging overdose, but if you can’t get your medicine down, it can’t do any good. To make bitter infusions more palatable, add sugar, honey, or lemon, or mix them with herbal beverage blends or fruit juice. If you still can’t stomach an infusion, try a different preparation.
Similar to infusions, decoctions are hot water extracts of roots and barks. Compared with flowers, leaves, and stems, it’s more difficult to coax medicinal constituents out of roots and barks. Instead of steeping, bring the water to a boil, reduce the heat and gently simmer the dried herb material for 10 to 20 minutes, then strain.
Tinctures are alcohol extracts. They’re highly concentrated, so they’re more portable than infusions or decoctions. They also remain potent longer—up to several years.
To make tinctures, commercial manufacturers typically use pure grain alcohol, which is 198 proof. But most home tincture makers use 100 proof vodka.
The standard tincture recipe calls for 1 ounce of powdered dried herb steeped in 5 ounces of distilled spirits for 6 weeks. Some tips:
• Seal tincture containers tightly.
• Despite sealing, some containers may ooze. Don’t store developing tinctures on valuable furniture.
• Label each tincture with the herb used and the date you put it up to steep. That way, you’ll know when 6 weeks have passed.
• Shake each mixture every few days to encourage alcohol uptake of the herb’s medicinal constituents.
• Keep tinctures out of direct sunlight.
• If possible, use brown glass containers to minimize light damage.
• Don’t be surprised if tincture change color as they develop.
• If the liquid level in developing tinctures fall, top off with more distilled spirits.
• After 6 weeks, most herbalists strain out the plant material, but this is not necessary.
• Store tinctures in a cool place.
• Keep tinctures away from children. Tinctures are quite potent, and a small amount might cause harm.
People who abstain from alcohol can make tinctures using warm (but not boiled) vinegar. Herbalists recommend wine or apple cider vinegar, not white vinegar. The directions are the same as for alcohol tinctures.
Powdered herbs can also be packed inside standard pharmaceutical gelatin capsules. Capsules are a convenient way to carry healing herbs when traveling or taking herbs that taste unpleasant. Many herb supply catalogs offer empty capsules and capsule-packing devices.
Capsules come in different sizes. The “00” size is standard. If you make capsules, measure how much powdered herb fits into the capsules you’re using so you won’t exceed the dosage recommended in this book.
Store capsules away from light and away from children.
To make herbal ointments, add 1 to 2 teaspoons of tincture per ounce of commercial skin lotion.
For compresses to treat cuts, burns, and other skin problems, dip a clean cloth in a cool infusion or decoction and drape it over the affected area for 20 minutes. Repeat as needed.
To make baths more relaxing, fill a cloth bag with a few handfuls of aromatic herbs, then allow water to run over it. For additional aroma, leave the herb bag in the water as you bathe.
