How to Make a Herbal Tincture — and Work Out the Dose

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• Also see: How to Standardize Botanical Nootropics: Extraction Mathematics, Active Titration, and Biological Assays
• Also see: How to Model Nootropic Pharmacokinetics and Synergistic Stacking: A Computational Guide
• Also see: Space Herbalism: The Next Frontier in Extraterrestrial Agriculture

Quick answer: A tincture is herbs steeped in alcohol. Use 1 part dried herb to 5 parts solvent (1:5), or 1:2 for fresh herbs, at an alcohol strength of 40–60% for dried and 75–95% for fresh, steeped four to six weeks and shaken daily. To hit a strength from a stronger bottle, use high-proof volume = (target % × final volume) ÷ high-proof %. Roughly 20 drops make 1 mL, so a 2 mL dose is about 40 drops — after you have checked the herb is safe at that dose.

A tincture is a solvent, not a tea

A tea pulls out what hot water will dissolve: sugars, some acids, water-soluble colour. A tincture does the opposite job with a different solvent — alcohol — which dissolves the resins, oils and alkaloids that water leaves behind, and then preserves the result for years instead of days.

That change of solvent is the whole method. Everything else — the jar, the shaking, the straining — is there to bring the solvent into contact with as much of the herb’s surface as possible, and then get it back out again.

So there are only two decisions that matter, and both are arithmetic:

1. How much solvent, in proportion to the herb — the ratio.
2. How strong the alcohol is — the strength.

Get those two right and a tincture is nearly foolproof. Get them wrong and you will still get a brown liquid; it will simply be weak, or it will spoil.

Dried herb ratio: 1:5 · one part herb to five parts solvent, by weight to volume
Fresh herb ratio: 1:2 · fresh plants are mostly water already
Alcohol for dried: 45% ABV · the middle of the 40–60% range
Alcohol for fresh: 75% ABV · the water in the plant dilutes it
Steeping time: 4–6 weeks · shaken once a day
Drop size: ~20 per mL · so 1 mL is about twenty drops

Decision one: the ratio

The ratio is written weight-to-volume: 1:5 means one gram of herb goes into five millilitres of solvent. It is not a matter of taste. It comes from how much solvent it takes to cover the herb and still leave the plant room to give something up.

• Dried herb: 1:5. Dried plant matter is mostly air by volume, so it fluffs up in the jar. Five parts solvent to one part herb covers it with room to spare.
• Fresh herb: 1:2. Fresh plants are 70–90% water, so what you weighed is largely water you are not adding. A tighter ratio keeps the alcohol doing the work instead of the plant’s own water.

A tincture made at the “wrong” ratio is seldom dangerous — just diluted or thin. Consistency is the point: the same herb at the same ratio, batch after batch, is what makes a dose mean the same thing twice.

Decision two: the strength

This is the one people get wrong, because the number that matters is not printed on the bottle you pour from — it is the final strength, once herb, alcohol and water are all in the jar.

Alcohol does two jobs at once, and they pull in opposite directions. More alcohol dissolves oils and resins better; but water is what swells the plant and lets the alcohol in. A tincture is always a blend of the two.

• Dried herbs: 40–60% ethanol. At this strength both a water phase and an alcohol phase reach into the plant.
• Fresh herbs: 75–95%. You are about to add a lot of water in the plant itself, so you start strong and let the plant dilute you down.

Diluting a strong bottle to the strength you want

Most people buy 95% spirit (or a high-proof vodka) and need something weaker. The rule is one line of arithmetic — the same one a pharmacist uses to mix two concentrations:

volume of strong spirit = (target % × final volume) ÷ strength % of the spirit

To make 500 mL of 45% from 95% spirit:

(45 × 500) ÷ 95  =  237 mL of the 95% spirit

Pour 237 mL of the strong spirit, then add water up to the 500 mL mark. The same rule in reverse gives the water: 500 − 237 = 263 mL.

This arithmetic ignores the small volume change when alcohol and water mix — they contract slightly. For a tincture you are making by eye that is far below the error of your own measuring, which is why a lab measures by weight and not by jug.

The calculator

Set the herb, its weight, and the strength you want, and it works out the solvent, the strong spirit to pour and the water to top it up. It also converts a dose in millilitres into drops.

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  <h4>Tincture Ratio &amp; Menstruum Calculator</h4>
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    <div><label>Herb (grams)</label><input type="number" id="mass" value="100" min="1" max="5000" oninput="calc()"></div>
    <div><label>Herb is</label><select id="kind" onchange="calc()"><option value="5">Dried (1:5)</option><option value="2">Fresh (1:2)</option></select></div>
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    <div class="res-box"><div class="res-num" id="o-solvent">500 mL</div><div class="res-lbl">Total menstruum</div></div>
    <div class="res-box"><div class="res-num" id="o-strong">237 mL</div><div class="res-lbl">Strong spirit to pour</div></div>
    <div class="res-box"><div class="res-num" id="o-water">263 mL</div><div class="res-lbl">Water to top up</div></div>
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  <p class="note">Ratio is weight-to-volume: grams of herb &times; the ratio = millilitres of solvent. Dilution is (target &times; solvent) &divide; bottle strength. Drops assume twenty per millilitre &mdash; measure your own dropper once and correct it.</p>
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Steeping, straining and bottling

Once the herb and the solvent are together, the rest is patience and hygiene.

1. Fill the jar. Put the herb in a clean, dry jar — a wide-mouth mason jar is ideal, because you have to get the spent herb back out later. Pour the solvent over it until it stands about an inch above the herb. Herb sitting above the surface is herb that is not extracting; push it down with a clean spoon.
2. Cap and shake. Shake once a day. That is not ceremony: it keeps fresh solvent moving past the plant surface and stops a layer of saturated liquid sitting still against it.
3. Wait four to six weeks. In a cool, dark cupboard. Light degrades many of the compounds you are trying to capture, which is also why the finished tincture goes into amber glass.
4. Strain. Pour through muslin or a fine sieve into a clean jug. Then gather the spent herb — the marc — into the muslin and squeeze it. A surprising share of the finished tincture is still in the marc, and throwing it away is throwing away the strong part.
5. Bottle and label. Funnel into amber dropper bottles and write four things on each: the herb, the ratio, the alcohol strength and the date. The label is what turns a jar of brown liquid into a dose you can reason about a year later.

type: line
title: How much of the herb the alcohol has taken up, by week (typical)
x: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6
Extracted: 45, 68, 82, 90, 94, 96

Most of the work happens in the first two weeks. The remaining month buys you the last few percent — which is why “ten days is plenty” is neither entirely wrong nor entirely right: it will be a real tincture, just a weaker one.

type: bar
title: Solvent needed for 100 g of dried herb, by ratio
x: 1 to 2, 1 to 3, 1 to 5, 1 to 8
Millilitres: 200, 300, 500, 800

See it done

Reading the method is one thing; watching someone pack a jar and squeeze the marc is faster. This short demonstration covers the same steps — dried herb, a measured ratio, and the squeeze at the end that most people skip.

Working out the dose

A tincture is dosed in millilitres or drops, and those are the same thing once you know your dropper. The only honest way to know a dropper is to count it:

• Fill it with water and count the drops to 1 mL. Most standard droppers land near 20; yours might be 18 or 25. Write the number down.
• A “dose” is a decision, not a constant. Two millilitres of a gentle herb and two millilitres of a potent one are not the same thing. The ratio and the strength above tell you how strong the liquid is; the herb tells you how much of it is sensible.
• Never guess the safe amount. Some of the most-studied herbs — and quite a few common garden plants — are the wrong ones to take without checking first. Alcohol-based extracts are also unsuitable for children, or for anyone avoiding alcohol.

This is a description of a method, not medical advice. Check a herb and its dose against a current, reputable reference — or a qualified practitioner — before you take it, especially if you take medication, are pregnant, or are giving it to anybody else.

The four numbers worth writing on the label

What	Why it matters
The herb	Species, not just a common name. There are several different “sage”s and they are not interchangeable.
The ratio	1:5 dried and 1:2 fresh are not the same strength, and a label that hides the ratio hides that.
The alcohol strength	A 25% tincture and a 75% one behave differently in the body and keep for different lengths of time.
The date	So you know how old it is, and can compare this batch with the last one.

Frequently asked questions

What herb-to-solvent ratio should a tincture use?

One part dried herb to five parts solvent by weight-to-volume (1:5) is the usual dried-herb starting point. Fresh herbs already hold water, so they are made 1:2 and with a stronger alcohol.

What strength of alcohol makes a tincture?

About 40–60% ethanol for dried herbs, and roughly 75–95% for fresh herbs, because the water in fresh plant matter dilutes the final strength. What matters is the final strength of the menstruum, not the bottle you poured from.

How do I dilute 95% alcohol to 45%?

Use the dilution rule: high-proof volume = (target percentage × final volume) ÷ high-proof percentage. For 500 mL of 45% from 95% alcohol that is (45 × 500) ÷ 95 = 237 mL of the strong spirit, topped up to 500 mL with water.

How long does a tincture take to make?

Four to six weeks, shaken once a day, in a cool dark place. Most of the extraction happens in the first fortnight; the remaining weeks buy the last few percent.

How many drops are in a millilitre of tincture?

About 20 drops per millilitre with a standard dropper, but it depends on the dropper and the liquid’s surface tension. Measure your own dropper once and write the number on the label.

Do tinctures go off?

A tincture at 25% alcohol or higher keeps for years in amber glass, cool and dark. Below about 20% it is really a preserved water extract and it can spoil.

Where these numbers come from

• The ratios and strengths — the standard weight-to-volume convention of herbal pharmacy, where 1:5 (dried) and 1:2 (fresh) are the ordinary starting points, and the alcohol ranges follow from what each phase will dissolve. Treat the ratios as conventions to be consistent with, not laws of nature.
• The dilution rule — the ordinary alligation any pharmacist uses to mix two concentrations. It is the same arithmetic as the mixture problems in How to Calculate Compound Interest in Your Head, wearing a different coat.
• The extraction curve — an illustrative shape for a well-mixed maceration, and the reason the advice is four to six weeks and not four to six days. Your own jar, shaken more or less, will sit near it.
• The drop count — your dropper. This is the one figure in the whole article you should measure rather than trust.

The extraction chemistry here is the same mathematics as How to Standardize Botanical Nootropics: Extraction Mathematics, Active Titration, and Biological Assays — only the scale differs. And if you want to follow a dose past the mouth, How to Model Nootropic Pharmacokinetics and Synergistic Stacking is where that arithmetic goes next.

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