A Definitive Guide To Making Your Own Tinctures From Herbs

You may be wondering how to consume dry herbs. In addition to topical lotions and edibles, making your own tinctures is also a possibility. Read on to find out more about tinctures and why you should try your hand at making your own tinctures!

What are Tinctures?

Tinctures are consumed as a liquid that is held beneath the tongue, usually for a few seconds but sometimes for as long as a minute. This allows the substances within the tincture to be absorbed by the bloodstream. Rapid absorption is possible because the area beneath the tongue is home to a large number of blood vessels, allowing dry herbs and other types of medications to enter the membrane and cellular walls quickly and easily.

Prior to certain herbs being outlawed early in the 20^th century, tinctures were a common way of introducing these substances into the body. In fact, these tinctures were sold by large pharmaceutical companies such as Bayer for treating conditions that include nausea, epilepsy, migraines and delirium. Tinctures started declining in popularity around 1910 but have recently seen a resurgence. The main advantage of using tinctures is their cost-effectiveness as well as the fact that they are made of all-natural ingredients.

Making Your Own Tinctures

The first things you will need are dry herbs. The next step is to perform decarboxylation before making your tinctures.

Performing Decarboxylation

Decarboxylation is a necessary chemical procedure for removing a carboxyl group from your dry herbs, making them suitable for consumption. Since the bioavailability of dry herbs before decarboxylation is extremely low, it will not produce the desired effects.

To perform decarboxylation, you will need to prepare the following ingredients:

• A mesh strainer
• A lidded mason jar
• A baking sheet and a piece of parchment paper
• A bowl
• A 1 oz. glass bottle with a dropper lid
• Everclear alcohol or similar high proof spirit

 To start the process, first preheat your oven to approximately 240°F. While that is ongoing, use a grinder to split and shred your flowers. Next, place your shredded flowers on the parchment paper you have prepared, which should be positioned on top of a baking sheet. From here, place the baking sheet inside your oven and allow it to bake for 40 to 60 minutes. Afterwards, remove your baking sheet and allow it to cool at room temperature.

If you find it a hassle to gather these ingredients, ONGROK also offers a Decarboxylation Kit for a hassle-free decarboxylation process. Our 4oz Decarb Containers are made of food-grade 304 stainless steel for accurate and consistent heating of herbs. All you have to do is simply add the necessary amount to the container and close the lid.  Close the airlock but do not close the latches prior to inserting the container in the oven. Once decarbing is complete, open the airlock and allow it to cool.

Making the Tincture

With the help of a botanical infuser, you can make tinctures using any herb of your choice! Simply place your herbs into your botanical infuser, then fill it up with Everclear or the spirit you have prepared. Next select "130°F" under temperature and "4-hours" under time. If you select the "8-hours" option, you will get a stronger tincture with greater intensity. After the ingredients have been infused, all you need to do is grab your dishwasher-safe mesh bag and strain the contents before storing it inside your dropper jars!