Herbal Administration

This is an instructional article.

Herbal Infusions and Decoctions

Main article: Tisane

There are two methods of making herbal teas, infusion and decoction. Infusion is steeping lighter parts of the plant (leaves, flowers, light stems) in boiled water for four to eight hours. Decoction is boiling tougher parts, such as roots or bark for a longer period of time. Herbal teas are often used as a home remedy, and as an alternative to tea and coffee.

Some popular herbal teas include borage, chamomile, dandelion, elderflower, hibiscus, nettle, and various species of mint. Each herb has unique medicinal properties, and a range of secondary effects; and this is linked to its use as a casual drink. For instance, Borage can be used medicinally (amongst other things) as an aid against depression; and it may be drunk more casually to lift the spirits. It has a mild sedative effect helpful in calming an exited or nervous state. It was traditionally served as a pep drink for weary travellers. Secondary effects include use as an anti-inflammatory or balsam; and hormonal and metabolic regulation. Other herbs may have similar side-effects, but in different proportions and are used in different ways.

Mixing Herbs. To counteract the various complications and side-effects of an ailment, or to produce a more rounded taste, a number of herbs may be mixed. A well-known mixture used against a cold includes eucalyptus leaf, mint leaf (which contains Menthol) and juniper berry. Another is the age-old favourite "dandelion and burdock", from which the popular fizzy drink was derived.

Fresh or Dried? Many flower and leaf herbs lose volatile compounds within a few hours, as the juices and oils evaporate, the scent leaks away, and the chemicals change their form. Drying concentrates other compounds as water is removed. Most herbal traditions use dried material and the reported effects for each herb tend to be based upon dried herbs unless otherwise specified.

If you are using fresh herbs, you will need more of them, and the tea will have a somewhat different effect. Finely chop the leaf immediately before using it.

Generic Western Tea is usually the leaf of one specific plant, Camelia Sinensis, which grows mainly in India and China. It can be seen as just one of many herbal teas. It is a stimulant, and its main property is to increase alertness, along with a slightly sedative or calming effect. But unlike a fresh herbal tea, it may include artificial additives to enhance the taste and to preserve it in the shops. More expensive teas include Darjeeling tea (from Darjeeling in India) and Earl Grey which has bergamot oil added (cheap imitations use bergamot 'flavouring').

Making a Nourishing Herbal Infusion

Typically, one ounce by weight (about a cup by volume) of dried herb is placed in a quart jar which is then filled to the top with boiling water, tightly lidded and allowed to steep for 4-10 hours. After straining, a cup or more is consumed, and the remainder chilled to slow spoilage. Drinking 2-4 cups a day is usual. Since the minerals and other phytochemicals in nourishing herbs are made more accessible by drying, dried herbs are considered best for infusions.

Nourish Yourself with Simple Infusions of Nettles, Oatstraw, Red Clover, and Comfrey. (the following is excerpt from Susun S. Weed's New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way, copyright 2007)

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) builds energy, strengthens the adrenals, and is said to restore youthful flexibility to blood vessels. A cup of nettle infusion contains 500 milligrams of calcium plus generous amounts of bone-building magnesium, potassium, silicon, boron, and zinc. It is also an excellent source of vitamins A, D, E, and K. For flexible bones, a healthy heart, thick hair, beautiful skin, and lots of energy, make friends with sister stinging nettle. It may make you feel so good you'll jump up and exercise.

Oatstraw (Avena sativa) reduces high cholesterol, increases libido, and strengthens the nerves. A cup of oatstraw infusion contains more than 300 milligrams of calcium plus generous amounts of many other minerals. Its steroidal saponins nourish the pancreas and liver, improving digestion and stabilizing moods. Oatstraw is best known however for its ability to enhance libido and mellow the mood. Do be careful whom you share it with, or you may find yourself sowing some wild oats. In Auryuvedic medicine, oatstraw is considered the finest of all longevity tonics.

Red clover (Trifolium pratense) is better in every way than its cousin soy. It contains four phytoestrogens; soy has only one (isoflavone). Red clover infusion has ten times more phytoestrogens than soy "milk," fewer calories, more calcium, and no added sugars. Red clover is the world's leading anti-cancer herb; soy isoflavone encourages the growth of breast cancer cells in the lab. Red clover improves the memory; Japanese men who ate tofu twice a week doubled their risk of Alzheimer's disease. Soy beverage can contain up to 1000 times more aluminum than milk, according to Sally Fallon, lipid researcher and fat specialist. She believes that "the highly processed soy foods of today are perpetuating . . . nutrient deficiencies. . . ."

Comfrey (Symphytum) leaf is free of the compounds (PAs) found in the root that can damage the liver. I have used comfrey leaf infusion regularly for decades with no liver problems, ditto for the group of people at the Henry Doubleday Research Foundation who have eaten cooked comfrey leaves as a vegetable for four generations. Comfrey is also known as "knitbone," and no better ally for the woman with thin bones can be found. And, don't forget, comfrey contains special proteins used in the formation of short-term memory cells. Its soothing mucilage adds flexibility to joints, eyes, vagina, and lungs.

Learn more about Tea and Infusions in the article series

Coffee
* See the main Coffee article for more information on coffee.
Coffee is prepared by roasting and then grinding up the ingredients, or sometimes by decoction. It is normally stored as a powder or as granules. This is dropped directly into the hot water. Some preparations dissolve completely, while others remain partly solid, giving the drink a gritty texture.

Where the coffee remains gritty, it must be left to infuse before drinking. To avoid the gritty texture, a machine such as a coffee percolator or French press may be used.

Generic Western Coffee is the roasted seeds of either Coffea arabica or Coffea canephora. Its properties are similar to the generic tea plant Camelia Sinensis, but it has about twice as much caffeine, a richer, mellower taste, and different additives. The roasting process eliminates caffeine, and (like tea) the darker the coffee, the less caffeine it contains. When coffee is scarce, people often drink coffee substitutes.

Herbal teas include many of the coffee substitutes, and others; but they are used here for a wide range of properties, rather than merely to simulate the taste of coffee.

Herbal tinctures
Steeping a medicinal plant in alcohol extracts the alcohol-soluble principles into a liquid form that can be stored for long periods. Different concentrations of alcohol are used to extract different constituents of the plants. For example; resins require high alcohol content and sugars usually require low alcohol content for optimal extraction.

There are many schools of thought about tincture making. In the traditional view an herb is either steeped once (single maceration) or more than once. In a double maceration the mark (or used plant material) is removed and replaced by a new batch (using the same alcohol) thus increasing the strength of the tincture. Sometimes the mark is then ashed (burnt until ash) and added back in which increase the amount of some minerals in the tincture.

In the scientific model tincture strengths are measured by a ratio of herb to alcohol (1:5 and 1:2 are the most common where the 1:2 is the stronger tincture). Many tinctures use a combination of vegetable glycerine and alcohol to extract which changes the compounds that are extracted.

Herbalists often mix several herbal tinctures to form an individualized prescription for each patient.

Plant tinctures are also the basis for homeopathic medicine, not to be confused with herbal medicine.

To learn how to make your own tinctures in a kit,

For a step by step instruction on how to make & use herbal tinctures visit the article series,

Fluid extracts
Fluid extracts are stronger than herbal tinctures, and can be preserved with alcohol or glycerin. They are just highly concentrated tinctures, made by distilling off some of the alcohol used in the tincture process. The final result is a liquid plant compound that can be 40 times more potent than a tincture.

Note: glycerates are herbal extracts that use glycerin as the sole extractant. They are very different and often have completely different medicinal properties than alcohol extracts. Tinctures or fluid extracts that are alcohol free should have the alcohol removed after the extraction process and replaced with glycerin which then acts just as the preservative.

Solid extracts
Solid extracts are made from tinctures just like fluid extracts, but the entire solvent is separated from the plant compound, leaving a soft paste-like solid exract or a dry solid extract that is often as much as 400 times more potent than tinctures. Solid extracts can be diluted back to either fluid extracts or tinctures.

Many solid extracts are made in the way that apple butter is made, by simply cooking the plant material and water slowly over low heat until it forms a paste. Sometimes these are sold with a preservative added (glycerine is the most common), and sometimes they need to be refrigerated when they are opened (like apple butter).

Herbal poultices
Poultices are a solid, vegetable fat-based mixture used externally. They have the shortest life span of any herbal remedy and must be made fresh for every use.

Poultices can be made with water or just fresh ground herb. They are applied topically often in conjunction with a heat source (hot water bottle or heating pad). They are used mostly (but not exclusively) for a localized injury (sprains, strains, scrapes, burns, bruises or cuts). They are excellent for hiking injuries (where there are usually plants and not pharmacies), but can be used for many other things.

Powdered herbs and tablets
Herbs that are dried and (usually) certain parts are separated out then ground to a powder fine consistency. Powdered matter can then be compressed or put in an empty capsule to form a tablet. Most tablets these days are made from some form of concentrated extract and not just plain herbal powders. This method is optimal for foul tasting herbs, highly concentrated forms and for travelling.

Powders are also used simply in their powdered form. Many Chinese medicine practitioners use powdered herbs as a base for making teas. Powdered herbs are also used topically as powders where dry skin is advantageous (some diaper rashes respond bettered to powdered herbs than ointments).

Herbal ointments
An ointment or salve is a semi-solid preparation made to be applied to the skin. Depending on the purpose for which it is designed and its method of preparation, the texture can vary from very greasy to a thick paste.

Most ointments use vegetable oils (olive and almond are common) in conjunction with a thickener like bees wax. The herbs are often extracted in the oils for months before they are ready to be made into an ointment. The herb is then removed from the oil and it is slowly heated with bees wax to form the desired consistency. Vitamin E and essential oils are often used to preserve the salve or ointment.

The simplest ointments use petroleum jelly as a base. In traditional ointments, a combination of carrier oils is used that helps them to be absorbed through the skin, plus hardening agents to create the desired texture.

To learn how to make your own herbal salves in a kit, . It's a simple, hands-on way to learn how to make your own.

Essential oils

Extraction of volatile liquid plant materials and other aromatic compounds from plants gives essential oils. These plant oils may be used internally in some forms of herbal medicine as well as in aromatherapy and generally for their perfume, although their medicinal use as a natural treatment (alternative medicine) has proved highly efficacious in the treatment of headache and muscle pain, joint pain and certain skin diseases

Herbal supplements
Herbal supplements tend to be commercial products in tablet or capsule form manufactured and marketed by the health food industry for sale in retail outlets to the general public, although there are some types that are sold only to healthcare practitioners for prescription.

Herbal supplements are often standardized to contain stated levels of active phytochemicals. Standardization can be done in a number of different ways. Many companies extract the supposedly active constituents and add them back into a base like rice fiber. This is no longer an herbal preparation as the whole herb is no longer present. Some companies follow the same procedure but add the extracted constituent to whole powdered herb. Some companies simply concentrate their whole herb until the desired constituent concentration is reached.

Many herbalists do not agree with the extraction/standardization of active ingredients, preferring instead to use the whole plant.

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