Herbal tinctures w/o alcohol

Has anyone used or knows from experience, can I use herbals without alcohol like would they work the same?? When I take these things there's like 30/50% alcohol in these things and that's a lot for me! Makes me feel tipsy or drunk and more messed up. Anyone else? Just wanted to know if they'd still be effective without the alcohol.

GoatLady said...
I have the same problem due to the sheer volume of tinctures I take. Here’s the solution- put your tinctures in a shot glass and place on a reptile heating mat for 4-24 hours. I do best with 24. This gently removes alcohol without making the tincture less effective. I don’t remember who said this before, Garzie maybe? But that’s where I got the idea. Personally I have moved to doing a week at a time and using a dehydrator for 12 hours. Works better for me as I work full time and need to pack them to work/not deal with it every day.
I measure out all the tinctures for each dose into one shot glass. My morning and bedtime ones are slightly different than lunch and supper, so I have to keep them organized. But this system works for me.

Yes I think it was Garzie who mentioned this before. What if I'm just starting of with 1 drop, then I can't put it In a shot glass it'll probably just dissolve? Wonder if we can put the entire bottle of tincture and do it all at once , then transfer it back to the tincture bottle?? Are you taking a dropper full at least whwn you're doing this? I can only take 1 drop at once for now.

the issue with non-alcohol type tinctures is the poor solvent properties the alcohol alternatives typically have for the plant compounds we are interested in

the other issue is that in most cases the work has not been done to evaluate how well or not well the non-alcoholic versions of each tincture works - ( it will be different for every plant used - not a constant like 25% of the strength of alcohol versions )

i suggested the heating matt approach for this reason - and still use that myself - it works well

the legal limit for alcohol when driving a car is reached with around 20ml of pure alcohol ( depending on legislation where you live )
there are around 40 drops of tincture to a ml
so for 1 drop of 50% alcohol
that will be around 1/((40*20)/(1/0.5)) = 1/1600th of the legal limit

as a result i am not sure if its the alcohol making you feel drunk

teas are perhaps another option - that probably work better in most cases than the expensive and less effective non-alcoholic versions - and you can make them as strong or as weak as you like.

buher says for Cryptolepis - tea made with acidified water required to dissolve the alkaloids in the plant properly ( add vinegar or lemon juice ) is nearly as strong as tincture

alternatively you could just leave 1 drop of tincture in the bottom of a glass on the counter and the alcohol portion will evaporate even at room temperature within 1-2hrs - then add water and try to re dissolve/ resuspend the solids / and take that

sorry Rainy - i don't recall exactly - it was a v long time ago i tried the tea

i suspect its is in his bartonella / coinfections book

but he does say doses of Cryptolepis are highly individual

i would start out at around 1g per cup of tea - and see how that goes - less if you think you are sensitive
i suspect full dose might be in the region of 3g 3x a day as a tea

i would make it into pretty fine grounds in a coffee grinder / or blender - and steep for a good while - i think i made it the night before to allow it to steep overnight

Garzie: thank you for the help and insight! I will start off with 1 gram. I have a pretty good blender that I use just for herbs so should be ok. 🙂

Girlie: thank you for the offer, I will keep that in mind for sure, I really appreciate you offering that! 🙂

MedicalNerd, sorry I didn’t respond earlier. Didn’t get an email notification and forgot to come on for a week.
I’m taking about 2 oz of tinctures per dose (1 dropper each of a LOT of herbs). So a lot more than a drop. For some reason I’ve never been sensitive/herxed from herbs? Except teasel causing pinky pain. I worked up from 1 drop 4x a day to 4 drops 4x a day.