Traditional Herbal Preparations: Five from the Stillroom

An herb is only half the story. The other half is what you do with it, and traditional herbal preparations are how the old physicians answered that. The same nettle is a mineral tonic as a long overnight infusion, a gentle spring green in the soup pot, and something else again as a tincture. Galen understood this perfectly: the way a plant is prepared changes its qualities. Heat, water, vinegar, wine, honey and oil each add their own temperament to the plant, and the old physicians chose among them as carefully as they chose the herbs themselves.

These are the five preparations I use most in my own stillroom, with what each one does, how to make it, and how it shifts the Galenic picture.

Table of Contents

1. Water: Infusions and Decoctions

Water is the oldest and gentlest menstruum, and for most household herbs it is the best. Two rules cover nearly everything:¹

Infusion is for the soft parts: leaves, flowers and aromatic seeds. Pour just-boiled water over the herb, cover it so the volatile oils stay in the cup, and steep 5–15 minutes. A standard cup is 1–2 teaspoons of dried herb per 250 ml.
Decoction is for the hard parts: roots, barks, berries and tough seeds. Put the herb in cold water, bring it slowly to a simmer, and simmer covered for 15–30 minutes. Dandelion root, burdock, cinnamon and elderberries all want decocting.
Long infusion is the nourishing form for mineral-rich herbs such as nettle, oatstraw and red clover: a generous handful in a litre jar of boiling water, lidded and left overnight.
Cold infusion is for mucilaginous herbs such as marshmallow root and for delicate plants like cleavers: steep in cool water for several hours or overnight. Heat damages what you want from them.

The Galenic reading: hot water adds warmth and moisture and opens the pores, which is why a hot cup of elderflower or peppermint brings on a sweat while the same herb taken cold does not. A cold infusion keeps a cooling herb cooling.

2. Vinegar: Herbal Vinegars and the Oxymel

Vinegar draws out minerals beautifully and keeps for a year or more. Fill a jar loosely with fresh or dried herbs, cover completely with raw cider vinegar, cap with a plastic lid or a sheet of baking paper under the metal (vinegar corrodes metal), and steep for 2–4 weeks before straining. Use it in dressings or take a spoonful in water.

The oxymel, honey and vinegar together, is one of the oldest compound preparations we have. Hippocrates advised it in acute fevers, especially of the chest, for loosening thick phlegm and easing expectoration.² In Galenic terms the combination is perfectly balanced: vinegar is cold and cutting, honey warm and cleansing, and together they thin and move the cold, sticky humours of a phlegmatic chest. To make one, steep your herbs (thyme and sage are excellent) in vinegar for two weeks, strain, and stir in an equal or slightly smaller volume of raw honey.

3. Alcohol: Tinctures

A tincture extracts a far wider range of constituents than water, keeps for years, and is the most convenient form to carry. Fill a jar with chopped dried herb, cover with vodka or brandy of about 40% alcohol, cap, shake daily, and strain after four to six weeks. Herbalists measure tinctures by ratio: a 1:5 tincture is one part dried herb by weight to five parts liquid by volume, the common strength for dried herbs.³ Most adult doses fall between 1 and 5 ml, two or three times a day.

The Galenic reading: wine and spirits were classed as hot and drying, which is one reason tinctures suit warming, dispersing herbs best. For hot constitutions, or for cooling herbs, a water preparation is often the wiser choice. Those who avoid alcohol can use glycerine or vinegar instead, though these extract less.⁴

4. Oil: Infused Oils and Salves

Oil carries the fat-soluble parts of a plant and brings them into the skin. Calendula, St John’s wort, arnica, chamomile and cayenne all make excellent infused oils.

Sun or slow method: fill a jar loosely with well-dried herb, cover by 2 cm with olive or sunflower oil, and leave in a warm place for 2–4 weeks, shaking daily.
Warm method: keep the herb and oil at a very low heat, never simmering, for a few hours, then strain through fine cloth.
Salve: warm the strained oil and melt in about 1 part beeswax to 5 parts oil. Test a drop on a cold saucer; add more wax for a firmer salve.

A firm rule: use dried herbs for infused oils. Fresh plant material holds water, and water trapped under oil can grow mould or, with garlic and other fresh roots, the bacteria that cause botulism.⁵

5. Honey: Infused Honeys, Syrups and Electuaries

Honey is a treasure in its own right, soothing to the throat and preserving everything it touches. Fill a jar with dried thyme, sage, rose petals, ginger or garlic, cover with runny raw honey, and leave for 2–4 weeks before using (or straining). An electuary is simply powdered herb stirred into honey to make a paste, the old way of making bitter or pungent powders easy to take; turmeric and ginger work well this way. A syrup is a strong decoction reduced and sweetened with honey, as with elderberry syrup.

The Galenic reading: honey is warming and gently moistening, and it carries an herb deep into the body. That is why honey preparations suit the dry, cold melancholic person and a dry, tickling cough.

Choosing a Preparation by Constitution

Phlegmatic (cold and moist): hot infusions, tinctures and oxymels, which warm, dry and cut through phlegm.
Melancholic (cold and dry): warm infusions, honeys, syrups and herbs simmered in milk, which warm and moisten.
Choleric (hot and dry): cold infusions and vinegars, light and cooling; go easy on tinctures.
Sanguine (hot and moist): cool infusions and vinegars, which cool and dry.

Safety in the Stillroom

Identify every wild plant with complete certainty before you use it.
Label every jar with the herb, the method, the ratio and the date.
Never give honey preparations to babies under one year old, because of the risk of infant botulism.
Store finished preparations cool and dark. Throw out anything that smells off, grows mould or fizzes unexpectedly.
Tinctures contain alcohol: keep them out of reach of children, and avoid them in pregnancy, liver disease and recovery from alcohol use.
Herbs are powerful plants. If you take medications from your doctor, check with your doctor or pharmacist before starting a regular herbal preparation.

Related reading: the individual monographs on turmeric, ginger and fermentation and herbs.

Common Questions

What is the difference between an infusion and a decoction?

An infusion steeps soft parts (leaves, flowers) in just-boiled water off the heat. A decoction simmers hard parts (roots, barks, berries) in water on the heat.

How long do homemade preparations keep?

Dried herbs about a year; tinctures several years; vinegars and oxymels about a year; infused honeys a year or more; infused oils six months to a year; teas and infusions only a day or two in the refrigerator.

What is an oxymel?

Honey and vinegar combined, often with herbs steeped in the vinegar. Hippocrates used it for feverish chest conditions; it remains an excellent way to take thyme or sage for a cough.

Can I make tinctures without alcohol?

Yes, with vegetable glycerine or vinegar, though they extract less and keep for a shorter time.

If this work is useful to you, you can buy me a coffee — buymeacoffee.com/cskizer

Notes

James Green, The Herbal Medicine-Maker’s Handbook: A Home Manual (Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press, 2000). ↩
Hippocrates, Regimen in Acute Diseases, in Hippocrates, vol. 2, trans. W. H. S. Jones, Loeb Classical Library 148 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1923). ↩
Kerry Bone and Simon Mills, Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy: Modern Herbal Medicine, 2nd ed. (Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 2013). ↩
Richo Cech, Making Plant Medicine (Williams, OR: Horizon Herbs, 2000). ↩
Green, Herbal Medicine-Maker’s Handbook. ↩

Bibliography

Bone, Kerry, and Simon Mills. Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy: Modern Herbal Medicine. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 2013.

Cech, Richo. Making Plant Medicine. Williams, OR: Horizon Herbs, 2000.

Green, James. The Herbal Medicine-Maker’s Handbook: A Home Manual. Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press, 2000.

Hippocrates. Regimen in Acute Diseases. In Hippocrates, vol. 2, translated by W. H. S. Jones. Loeb Classical Library 148. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1923.