Anyone know how to remove alcohol from herbs/tinctures on the stove?

I have not done this in several years and forget. I use Byron White and Beyond balance formulas.

Do I put the drops in water in a cup and put the cup in a pot of boiling water for one minute?

Thanks in advance!

Alchool evaporates.....so if you let it stand about one min or a little more ...it should evaporate.

no...just let it stand in the glass with water

From what I read, you should avoid heating tinctures, they will lose their effectiveness. Measure out your dose, close the bottle, and let the glass or whatever you're taking your dose in sit open for awhile. How long I could not find out.

Artermix - 60 seconds can't be long enough?


Otherwise, when we're having an alcoholic beverage...one minute after it's poured...the alcohol is dissipated?


July - I don't think putting the tincture in hot...or very warm water does harm them...boiling them...might, though.

Just did some rough calculations and each tincture dropper would be the alcohol equivalent of 1/30 of a beer (assuming 50% alcohol).

No wonder Buhner is now writing books with titles like "Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm: Beyond the Doors of Perception into the Dreaming of Earth"

I am of the opinion that it cannot be removed entirely and that doing so diminishes the effectiveness of the tincture anyway. I have no "evidence" to back up the latter portion of that statement though.

I have tried all the popular methods out there, varying temperatures of water, allowing it to stand for periods of time, hours even, etc. There were times where I could either still taste the alcohol, albeit faintly, or that my fungal/mold sensitivities were set off. It's very similar to when I eat problematic foods.

It definitely was not due to herxing or anything like that.

I deal with many food/chemical sensitivities, so maybe I am more in tune with its presence? Maybe it is not the alcohol at all? I don't know, for sure. But, there is something in tinctures that my body does not like.

Also, my other point, isn't the alcohol both what helps to extract the medicinal constituents of an herb, as well as preserve and make them more bioavailable? I feel like getting rid of it lessens the potency, and that, at that point, you would be better off just making teas, taking capsules of herb powder, etc.

I really don't know though. Sadly, I do not put enough time into educating myself when it comes to Lyme, both in terms of new and retaining old info, a potentially grave mistake in the future.

Also, what Girlie said, if you are taking a number of different herbs in tincture form, all that alcohol adds up when you get to max dose. Even if you manage to get rid of 80% of the alcohol, it could still end up being a like shot or something? They put a lot of darn alcohol in some of those things, I just remembered.

Post Edited (NotQuiteAntonio) : 9/22/2016 1:11:22 AM (GMT-6)

When the alcohol is really an issue, then it's best to switch to tinctures made with glycerin instead.

If you put a shot of alcohol (say whiskey) in a shot glass and allow it to sit out for a minute, or put it in a cup and then put the cup in boiling water - the alcohol is still there. You will only be changing the "plant parts" - not the alcohol. (sorry, my brain isn't really awake yet).

There are so many rumors about this that simply aren't true. Since my brain isn't doing so good today, I finally found where the reality of trying to remove alcohol is already written out. Sorry, I'm in school for this stuff, so I've learned.

"Can I evaporate away the alcohol in liquid herbal extracts by mixing the extract drops into hot water?


A small amount of the alcohol can be removed this way but most of it will stay intimately mixed with the hot water and will remain so even if the water is boiled. That's because alcohol and water are extremely difficult to separate once they have been mixed.

While adding extracts to hot water will not eliminate their alcohol, it can, in some cases, actually damage the extract. Many extracts are heat stable (e.g., Goldenseal) and adding them to hot water does no harm. However, other extracts are damaged by heat (e.g., Valerian) and can be weakened by adding them to hot water.

Also, essential oils found in certain extracts (e.g., Lemon Balm, Chamomile) will be at least partially vaporized by hot water. Here you are left with a compromised extract, but the alcohol remains."

(the only thing I did was add extra spacing for ease of reading - yep, my eyes are messing with me today too!)
/www.herb-pharm.com/faq/product-info

artermix said...
Alchool evaporates.....so if you let it stand about one min or a little more ...it should evaporate.

I'm using several BW tinctures, tried the recommendation from them, 10 min in warm water, still reacting to the alcohol. I'm putting tomorrow's doses in open jars in a dark cabinet to use tomorrow morning, expecting that should be sufficient time for a few drops apiece to evaporate. My concern is that some of the herbal constituents might evaporate as well. Do you have any knowledge about this or a resource?

I can't use the honey preservation, sugar of any kind is a problem.

The biggest issue with trying to reduce the alcohol content in a tincture is that in doing so (no matter the process used), you will loose some of the volatile oils that were trapped in the alcohol. This may reduce some of the effectiveness of the tincture.

If a person honestly needs to avoid the alcohol, then it's best to stick to glycerin tinctures, as they do not contain alcohol, but have been processed without and only use glycerin.

There are people that prefer to use glycerites (as they are known) and people that prefer to use alcohol tinctures - I prefer the alcohol tinctures based on what the alcohol can extract from the plants compared to what the glycerin can extract.

Here is a pretty good article on the differences: www.theintegratedbody.org/tinctures-vs-glycerites/