@orysiaanna: If you know the active compounds in your herb and what you are trying to extract, the you can use this guide to know which solvent (menstruum) to use. Also helpful for those who can’t take alcoholic tinctures, you can see which compounds might be missing by using glycerin. Here is a quick breakdown to help you master your formulations: Water Only: This is your go-to for extracting minerals, plant acids, polysaccharides, and starches. Alcohol and glycerin simply can’t do this on their own! Glycerin: Fun fact—glycerin is actually bad at extracting things on its own, not because of its chemical makeup, but because it is too thick! It needs water to work. Once diluted, it becomes an amazing extractor and stabilizer for polysaccharides, tannins, flavonoids, and polyphenols. Alcohol: This is your heavy lifter. You absolutely need alcohol to pull out stubborn constituents like resins, volatile oils, phytosterols, and heavy alkaloids. The Ultimate Combo? A combination of Water and Alcohol can extract almost everything that water and glycerin can, plus a whole lot more. Important Note: The only catch with the water/alcohol combo is dealing with polysaccharides. While water extracts them beautifully, adding alcohol will cause those polysaccharides to precipitate right out of the solution! Make sure to pause the video and screenshot the graphic on the screen to save as a cheat sheet for your next tincture! What kind of tincture are you planning to make next? Let me know in the comments! 👇 #herbalism #tinctures #plantmedicine #herbalmedicine #botanicalextracts

Orysia Anna

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Monday 14 September 2026 18:25:10 GMT