Herbal Extracts & Tinctures

What is an extract?

EU regulators define herbal preparations as products obtained by subjecting herbal substances (the plant part, named by its botanical name) to treatments such as extraction, distillation, expression, fractionation, purification, concentration or fermentation; they include comminuted or powdered herbs, tinctures, extracts, essential oils, expressed juices and processed exudates. [1] Extracts can be grouped by solvent (for example water-based or alcohol-based) and by physical state: liquid extracts, with tinctures as the example, stay liquid and are often preserved in alcohol or glycerin; soft extracts are semi-solid; and dried extracts are made by removing the solvent. [2] Matricaria (chamomile) flower, for example, is available as the cut flower for tea, as dry or liquid extracts (made with a solvent such as ethanol), and as other forms. [3]

What is a tincture?

The EU describes a tincture as an alcoholic extract of the plant material. [4] The review we read describes liquid extracts "exemplified by tinctures" that are often preserved in alcohol or glycerin. [2] Tincture-making is a form of maceration, like making tea in a bag but with a different solvent. [2] Because the solvent differs, a tincture and a tea of the same herb are not the same product. Glycerites use glycerin as the solvent. Proper evidence not found: we could not find a source we could read describing glycerite strength, how well they extract compounds compared with alcohol, or their effectiveness, so we make no such claim; we only know that glycerin is named as a preservative alongside alcohol. [2]

Extract ratios (drug extract ratio)

The EU defines the drug extract ratio (DER) as the ratio between the quantity of herbal substance used to make a preparation and the quantity of preparation obtained: the number before the colon is the relative amount of herb, and the number after is the relative amount of the preparation. [1] So a ratio such as 1:5 says how the extract was made, and does not tell you how much of any compound is in a serving. EU monographs show how much preparations differ: ginger tincture appears as both 1:10 (1.5 to 3 ml) and 1:2 (0.25 to 0.5 ml), and nettle dry extracts as several different ratios with different amounts. [5][6]

Alcohol in extracts

Alcohol-based extracts contain alcohol. In EU monographs, tinctures and liquid extracts containing ethanol must carry ethanol labeling, [4] and one dried-extract example (lemon balm) specifies ethanol 45 to 53% (V/V) as the extraction solvent. [4] We did not find a source we could read for typical alcohol percentages in tinctures sold as supplements, so we give none. If you avoid alcohol, are pregnant or breastfeeding, take medicine that interacts with alcohol, or are giving anything to a child, ask a pharmacist before using a tincture. Claims such as "alcohol-free" should be checked against the ingredient list.

Standardization and ratios

"Standardized" means a lab measured a marker compound; NIH says the words "standardized", "verified" or "certified" do not necessarily guarantee product quality or consistency. [7] A ratio such as 1:5 describes how much plant material went into the extract and does not tell you how much of any compound is in a serving. Equal volumes or ratios of different preparations are not clinically equivalent.

Extracts vs tea vs capsules

In the NIH summaries we read, the studied products for chamomile and ginger were supplements, not tea. [8][9] See Research.

Extracts are not essential oils

Tinctures and extracts are different from essential oils. Essential oils are covered in Essential Oils & Aromatherapy, and should not be swallowed.

Home extraction

We do not give instructions for making extracts at home. Solvent choice, plant identification, concentration and safety all matter, and we cannot verify methods that are safe for each plant. Never make a preparation from a plant you have not had positively identified, or from toxic or psychoactive plants.