Powder or whole for tincture

Hi everyone. I’m considering making one particular tincture myself due to how much of it I consume and the cost. It’s Gou Teng. It looks like a very woody herb and I don’t want to purchase a vitamix to grind it down. My question is, can I just buy the powdered version to make the tincture and if so, does that change the proportion of herb to alcohol to use…or do I still stick to the weight regardless of form Thanks.

extraction will be better the finder the product is powdered - so in that respect the powdered version is preferable to cut herb ( the parts of Gou Teng normally used are the hooks and stems - its a thorny creeper type plant)

you can grind it yourself in a decent kitchen blender with a glass body ( best to avoid plastic fragments in the product) and this probably is even preferable as the herb will keep better in its whole form than powdered - but it may not be a large difference and is a bit messy and time consuming

most recipes call for 1 part herbs to 5 parts alcohol/water mix by weight - and 60% alcohol

pressing is not essential - but around 20-30% of the product will be left in the wet herb unless you have some kind of press to press it out - i make a lot of tinctures so i use a hydraulic press adapted from a cheap garage press to do this ( the type that uses a bottle jack ) see amazon etc

i use 1:4 ratio ,as i have a powerful press - so this saves same alcohol and and can still extract it

its a good herb - seems to have helped me - but it is rather expensive and doses are rather high
i use 4x 4ml per day - so only really affordable for me if i make my own

i do both - it depends on the specific herb - for Gou Teng - i buy it in powdered form