Echinacea flowers are at the end of their bloom right now.  If you have some in your yard, or in a friend’s yard, clip the flowers, and dig up some roots if you want to get your hands dirty, and follow the below steps and recipe for how to make an echinacea tincture.

What is a tincture?

I recently went to an amazing all-day {mom’s day out} class on Herbal Medicine Making.  I learned so much about herbs and plants and their medicinal and healing properties.  And I am bringing this new found passion here because it is easier than you think to make these amazing herbal medicines!!

Now, onto tinctures.  I had no clue what this meant.  Little did I realize that I’ve actually made a tincture before!  I have a batch of vanilla going at all times {You can see my post on How to make your own vanilla.}  Basically, you soak a plant in alcohol for a long period of time.  This is for at least a month — we let our vanilla go six months — and for an echinacea tincture, two to three months is best.

A tincture is a liquid solution of an herb or plant or root, often used as a dietary supplement or medicinal treatment. Alcohol {or glycerin when you make for use by children} stabilizes the medicinal properties in the plant.

Why echinacea?

My mom has been taking pills with echinacea for years.  Whenever she feels sick, she takes them.  Echinacea {purple coneflower} fights many ailments and it stimulates the immune system to fight the flu and colds.  It also contains antiviral properties, which help to heal infections.

But instead of reaching for years-old echinacea pills, bottled in a factory.  Why not take the plant straight from the earth?  {The recipe for an echinacea tincture is below.}

Why make your own?

• Echinacea is easy to grow.
• You know it is fresh.
• You know it is pure.
• It is much cheaper.  Instead of paying $15 for a tiny bottle at Whole Foods, why not make a lifetime’s supply of your own?  Or gift friends with health?
• It is fun to make your own things.
• The experience of creating something from the earth is a valuable lesson and an enjoyable time for little ones.

This is the easiest herbal medicine you can make.  I planned a special time with John, my four year old, and we cut the flowers together.  At first he was a bit upset that we were cutting them.  “Leave them mom, they’ll die when you cut them!”  But I explained that we were making something special, and he got enthused.
We weighed our echinacea flowers, our mason jar and our alcohol, to ensure we had the correct measurements {see below for the exact recipe!}

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You could cut and dice the echinacea by hand, or you could use a blender.  We use our trusty Vita-Mix, which I can’t recommend more highly for all sorts of uses!
John put each one in {while it was still unplugged!} And here it is, all minced up.  Isn’t it heavenly? We added our alcohol and echinacea flowers to a big mason jar, and now it is sitting in the basement {little light} for two to three months — it will be ready for “cold season” soon!

Easy way to make echinacea tincture

The easiest way to make a tincture is to chop up your fresh plant and cover it with mensturm (your liquid: 40-50% alcohol or glycerin, if made for children) to about 1/2 inch above the herb.

Measured way

When using fresh herbs, the most common volume ratio of fresh plants to vodka is 1:2 (one part plant to two parts vodka).  When using dried herbs, the most common volume ratio is 1:5.  There are more factors that go into volume ratio, but this is the correct ratio for our echinacea tincture!

Constituents of the plant are extracted by both water and alcohol.  We use a 50% alcohol (most vodkas are 40-50% alcohol), so that both solvents are present, so the plant is properly extracted.  

Recipe for echinacea tincture

 Supplies:

• echinacea flowers {and the root, if you choose to dig the plant up!}
• vodka {40-50% alcohol}
• kitchen scale
• blender
• large mason jar
• cotton cheesecloth
• eye dropper bottles
• labels

Instructions:

1. Cut your flowers from the plant.
2. Blend or finely slice your herb.
3. Weigh your herb and add to a mason jar.
4. Weight twice the amount of vodka and add to mason jar.
5. Let sit in a dark place for at least one month — two to three months is even better.
6. Shake your bottle or use a spoon to ensure the plant contents stay below the liquid.
7. After your tincture as macerated, strain with muslin cloth.
8. Bottle your tincture and label well.

I hope our echinacea tincture recipe has made the process less intimidating.  Go out and try it!  This makes a great gift for friends; only give to those who would actually use it, however!  Tinctures have a shelf life of 10+ years.  Herbs are God’s gift to mankind, and I am so excited to begin using them as He intended.  Enjoy!

 

Or just buy!

You may not have the time, or resources, to make your own echinacea tincture.  But you can buy high quality tincture at Whole Foods or Amazon.

Echinacea tincture for kids {contains only glycerin}

Echinacea tincture for adults from Amazon or this higher quality one from Mountain Rose Herbs