DIY Echinacea Tincture, Plus 5 More Echinacea Recipes
Making an echinacea tincture is a very easy process that requires little more than a few ingredients, a jar, and a kitchen scale. Plus, get 5 more useful echinacea recipes in this post!
Tinctures seemed so advanced to me when I began learning about herbs years ago. I wasn’t sure if I wanted use them, and I certainly wasn’t sure in my ability to actually make one! I also didn’t understand the benefits of tinctures.
A tincture is nothing more than a concentrated herbal extract made with a grain alcohol, typically vodka. They certainly don’t taste great, but they preserve an herb’s active compounds and are able to dissolve certain compounds from herbal material that aren’t soluble in water, making them more potent than teas.
Having an echinacea tincture on hand is actually something new to me. I’ve always just made infusions and decoctions with the herb, but having a tincture ready to go is so much more convenient! Making my own echinacea tincture will definitely become an annual project.
All it takes is herb, grain alcohol, a jar, and a kitchen scale to make your own DIY echinacea tincture.
Tincturing Basics
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Making a tincture is really deserving of a whole post (mental note made!), but here are some basics to keep in mind:
- For most accurate dosing, it’s best to measure herbs by weight (grams) and alcohol by volume (mL). This can easily be done at home with a simple digital kitchen scale and small measuring cup.
- Most dried herbs are tinctured at a 1:5 ratio. Don’t panic. It’s very simple. One part of herb (in grams) is tinctured in 5 parts alcohol (in mLs). That might look like 20 grams of dried herb in 100 mLs of vodka.
- 100 proof vodka is the standard alcohol used for tincturing, though lower proofs can still be used.
- Herbs need not be powdered for tincturing, but it helps if they are in relatively small, uniform pieces.
DIY Echinacea Tincture
Ingredients
- 20 grams dried echinacea herb (aerial parts)
- 20 grams dried echinacea root
- 200 mL 100 proof vodka
*Echinacea purpurea or E. angustifolia can be used for this tincture. Excellent herbs can be found at Mountain Rose Herbs and Bulk Herb Store.
Instructions
- If needed, pulse the dried herb and root pieces in a spice or coffee grinder so that they are in small uniform pieces. You don’t want the herb powdered, but you don’t want big chunks, either.
- Place the herbs in small glass jar (6-8 oz size works well for this one) and pour alcohol on top.
- Cap with a lid, shake to evenly disperse the alcohol, and place in a dark cupboard at room temperature.
- Shake the tincture daily for 2-3 weeks, then strain the herb from the finished tincture. I like to do this with a lint-free cloth placed over a small sieve so I can squeeze out every bit of tincture from the herb.
- Pour the tincture into a 4 oz. dark amber bottle with a dropper top and label clearly as “Echinacea Tincture: Root & Herb”, the made on date, and the dosing. For this tincture, 1 drop of tincture can be given for every 30 pounds of body weight, 3-4x daily.
Remember, I said that tinctures generally don’t taste very good, and this is no exception. To give this to children, you might find them a bit more willing if you dose theirs into a small bit of honey, juice, or anything else that will cover the flavor. Since you’re giving drops at a time, that shouldn’t be difficult.
Echinacea is typically best taken at the onset of sickness and not as a preventative herb. General recommendations are to take it for up to two weeks before pausing for another two weeks.
5 More Echinacea Recipes
You can find more great uses for echinacea by trying some of these five recipes:
- This Botanical First Aid Ointment features some of the most powerful antimicrobial herbs in one balm.
- Plain elderberry syrup is turned into an excellent Cough and Cold Syrup (found at the bottom of the post) with the addition of echinacea and other cough-soothing herbs.
- Echinacea is featured in this Bug Bite Salve Stick recipe that also includes other soothing herbs.
- These Fruity Echinacea Gelatin Squares look like the tastiest way to serve echinacea to children, plus they’re packed with Vitamin C!
- Fungal infections can be very embarrassing on the feet, but this Anti-Fungal Foot Powder offers both healing and relief from the infection and irritation.
Can you please let me know if I’ve let it sit for way longer than the 2 to 3 weeks, if it’s still okay to use??
If your herbs are in a strong alcohol, like a 100 proof vodka, it should be fine.
Thanks!!!
I purchased a French coffee press to extract my liquid from the dried herbs. I use it for herbal tinctures only.
I have heard of doing that! Do you use a small press for it?
I use a coffee filter to filter my tinctures. They don’t soak up as much of my tincture as a cloth does. I use two stainless dog bowls pinched in a c clamp to squeeze out my tincture from the plant material. It gets more out and is not a messy as squeezing it by hand.
Brilliant, Melanie! Thank you for sharing! I always default to a cloth when straining herbs (I do a lot of infused oils and more glycerine extracts), but using a coffee filter makes so much sense when making an alcohol tincture. I’ll definitely try that next time!
The coffee filters work great for glycerites and oils too. I just hate to have so much of my precious liquid lost to the strainer, especially when I am only making 4oz or less.
Definitely! Do you think the coffee filters would work with glycerites if I don’t use the press you made? I can definitely see oil working just fine, too, especially if it’s warm.
Melanie. I don’t quite understand the 2 ss dog bowls and clamp setup. Could you explain more or pic if allowed on this site. Thank you.
I don’t think there’s a way for Melanie to add a photo in the comments, but if she happens to see this I hope she can describe it better for you, Howard. Best wishes to you!