01-02-2013, 18:15
(This post was last modified: 01-02-2013, 18:20 by LookingForward2NBE.)
Of course you can.. An extraction simply pulling something out of something else. Seeping is AN EXTRACTION. Lol.
Removing water from a plant, ie dried plant is an extraction. The dried herb by volume is significantly more concentrated then wet herb.
Unless its a standardized extract, which means that a specific chemical is tested for purity.. Doing it at home is possible.
For example, you can buy just green tea leaves. Or you can buy green leaf powder. Or you can nuy green tea standardized for 98% ECGC. Most extractions are simple water removal or alcohol ones and not highly purified standardized material like that 98% material.
At home, there is very little way of controlling the PURITY of the procedure as how a standarized material would be done commercially but if you look on the shelf of most herbal stores, the materials are simply ratio stds. like a 4:1 or say extract without saying exactly what was extracted. Ratio stds are typically just the amount of water that has been dried out. Think of a cucumber, how much it weights naturally, then dried it and see how much the resulting powder weights. I'd guess it would be 10x lighter so you just made 10:1 cucumber extract.
As for making a tincture at home, buy some 40% or higher grain alcohol like vodka or rum and grind up the red clover, then put the clover in an amber wide mouth jar, put the ground clover and add 1x to 2x the amount of alcohol by volume to clover ie if you have 1cup of clover, add 2cups of alcohol . store in a dark place and shake lightly daily.
Wait a minimum of 2wks, but I'd suggest 1month at least. 3 months even better. Make 2 jars so you can start using 1 jar after one month while the other is still extracting for up to 3months. When its ready, filter it through a unbleached coffee filter, squeeze the powder a lot to get all the alcohol out of the herb. Done. Consume the alcohol like 1mL or dropperful at a time and ramp dose as you feel fit.
You've just created a 2 phase extraction ie alcohol extraction and also a water extraction. 40%+ alcohol also contains ~60% water.
Removing water from a plant, ie dried plant is an extraction. The dried herb by volume is significantly more concentrated then wet herb.
Unless its a standardized extract, which means that a specific chemical is tested for purity.. Doing it at home is possible.
For example, you can buy just green tea leaves. Or you can buy green leaf powder. Or you can nuy green tea standardized for 98% ECGC. Most extractions are simple water removal or alcohol ones and not highly purified standardized material like that 98% material.
At home, there is very little way of controlling the PURITY of the procedure as how a standarized material would be done commercially but if you look on the shelf of most herbal stores, the materials are simply ratio stds. like a 4:1 or say extract without saying exactly what was extracted. Ratio stds are typically just the amount of water that has been dried out. Think of a cucumber, how much it weights naturally, then dried it and see how much the resulting powder weights. I'd guess it would be 10x lighter so you just made 10:1 cucumber extract.
As for making a tincture at home, buy some 40% or higher grain alcohol like vodka or rum and grind up the red clover, then put the clover in an amber wide mouth jar, put the ground clover and add 1x to 2x the amount of alcohol by volume to clover ie if you have 1cup of clover, add 2cups of alcohol . store in a dark place and shake lightly daily.
Wait a minimum of 2wks, but I'd suggest 1month at least. 3 months even better. Make 2 jars so you can start using 1 jar after one month while the other is still extracting for up to 3months. When its ready, filter it through a unbleached coffee filter, squeeze the powder a lot to get all the alcohol out of the herb. Done. Consume the alcohol like 1mL or dropperful at a time and ramp dose as you feel fit.
You've just created a 2 phase extraction ie alcohol extraction and also a water extraction. 40%+ alcohol also contains ~60% water.