There must be some virtue in tinctures (along with convenience and shelf life) considering how popular they are in traditional Chinese herbal formulas.

The most popular methods used for herb delivery in Chinese medicine are teas or tea pills, not tinctures.

No question about powders, but the following herbalist has a strong opinion in regard of tinctures versus capsules:

“It is interesting to note that there are only a handful of herbal tincture manufacturers in North America, but you have many companies manufacturing herbal products in capsules. Why is that? The simple answer is money.” by Klaus Ferlow, HMH (Honorary Master Herbalist)

http://stason.org/articles/wellbeing/health/herbal/Liquid-Herbal-Tinctures-Ho...

There is a lot of misleading information in this article.  For starters cost has nothing to do with the number of tincture manufacturers out there.  It has to do with market demand.  There just is not as much of a market for tinctures do to their drawbacks.  These include:

-Higher cost.

-Less convenience.

-They can spill or leak.

-Not all the alcohol is removed by putting them in hot water.

-Contrary to claims they DO NOT have an indefinite shelf life.  In fact there shelf life is pretty equal to that of powders/capsules and sometimes even shorter.

-Tinctures do not extract the insoluble fibers that slow glucose absorption, help with bile formation, bind toxins, provide silica and feed the flora.

-Alcohol can react with compounds in herbs altering the chemistry of the herbs.

And addressing some other claims in the article:

Standardized extracts can be said to combine science and nature to optimal advantage. I is important to understand that after the active ingredients are brought up to a standard potency, they are added back into the whole herb extract. Herbalist known from long experience that whole herbs work synergistically; that is, even their minor constituents often play a significant role in such functions as enhancing absorption or preventing toxicity. Pharmacologist and physicians who prescribe herbal medicines advocate this type of standardization because it makes treatment more predictable while preserving the holistic aspects of herbal medicine.

I disagree with this claim.  Standardization is not as great as they are trying to make it out to be.  Take for example one of the earliest standardized herbs, Saint Johnswort (SJW).  First they thought that hypericum was the active component so they standardized it for that.  Then they decided that was not the active component, and decided hypericin was the active component.  So they standardized the SJW for that.  Then they decided that neither were the active component and that the flavonoids were the active component.  The only reason standardization is popular at all is because of money.  As with pharmaceutical drugs made from herbs the standardization process allows the companies to patent the altered herb, which is now in a sense a drug.

And standardization alters the ratios of the active components in the herbs, which can also alter the effects of the herbs.  Alfalfa for example contains coumarins and balancing vitamin K.  If they standardize the alfalfa for vitamin K you now have a potent blood thinner instead of an herb with a neutral effect on blood clotting.  These are the reason I almost never utilize standardized extracts.  Again it is not about effectiveness but rather profits.

For some herbs, standardization is absolutely necessary to make them effective at all. Horsetail, for example, has extremely unstable active constituents that are easily destroyed in processing of any kind. . Horsetail is used for its content of silicon, a mineral involved in the formation of skin, nails, hair, bones, cartilage and connective tissue. Although silicon is abundant in the environment, he body has difficulty absorbing and utilizing this mineral. In horsetail herbs, silicon is bound to organic matter, which allows the body to assimilate it with relative ease..

This statement does not make any sense.  As they point out horsetail grass (shavegrass) is used for its silica content.  And as they point out silicon is poorly absorbed.  But this is true regardless if it is bound to organic matter or not.  The part that does not make sense though is their claim that horsetail has "extremely unstable active constiuents that are easily destroyed in processing of any kind".  Think about this for a second.  Silica is the "active component" in horsetail, and silica is in essence sand or glass, which is extremely stable.  So what does this guy think is an unstable active compound in horsetail?  The poisonous thiaminase, which luckily is destroyed by drying or cooking.  Horsetail grass also contains nicotine, which is something that is relatively stable and something not good for the body.  So the only desirable active component is the silica, which is stable.  And since silica is so hard to absorb does it really make sense to increase the concentration of silica to pay more for the product just so the additional unabsorbed silica gets eliminated in the feces?

Standardization is foremost a consumer protection issue and allows the buyer to make an informed choice and be sure of obtaining medicinally active ingredients and it guarantees that the product is made from good quality, unsubstituted, correct species of plants with no contaminants.

The majority of herbs being used in manufacturing are tested by the importers to make sure the correct species are obtained and that they are within guidelines for metal and bacterial contaminants.  This is why certificates of analysis (COAs) are sent with the herbs when buying from raw material suppliers.  In addition, many companies are now going to GMP manufacturing.  This requires not only the COAs, but additional re-testing of each and every individual batch of herbs being used to confirm identification and any contaminants.  The herbs do not have to be standardized for these requirements.  All herbs must undergo these tests.

As for their quality claim this is misleading.  Standardization allows them to use herbs of lower quality since all they have to do is keep extracting the components from the low quality herbs until they finally reach the desired concentration of that component.

Quality extraction companies take additional precautions with their herbs to ensure the highest quality final product. The quality of their raw material is based on taste, smell, microbiological analysis, pH ratings, solubility and appearance

Again this is done by ALL raw material suppliers, for ALL the herbs and supplements they provide.  This is why raw material suppliers supply COAs for ALL herbs and supplements they supply, not just the standardized extracts. So the author is being misleading again.

Prescription drugs on the other hand may be extracted using single isolated ingredients, most of them are however are not plant derived and synthetically, chemically developed in laboratories, but when plants are not used in their natural state it can result in harmful side effects!

So what does this say about tinctures since plants do not occur naturally as tinctures?

There is a significant advantage in using herbal tinctures as opposed to capsules since it could take 20 capsules to equal a dose of 1 ½ tea spoon or 75 drops of tincture.

Again a misleading claim.  First of all 20 capsules of an herb is way more than is needed for a dose.  On average the recommended dose for herbal capsules is generally only 2-3 capsules.  If they are recommending 1 1/2 teaspoons of a tincture as a dose then the capsules are a better choice.

Capsules can take from 20 - 30 minutes or more just for the system to break it down so the body can start assimilate the content

This is an outright lie.  Capsules readily break down in the stomach enough to release their contents normally within a minute or two.

Most capsules are still made from gelatin, derived from animal bones and bone marrow.

Animal gelatin is not made from bone marrow.  It is made from hides, hooves and connective tissue.  Although vegetarian capsules are also available.

 Tinctures on the other hand have a bitter taste (that's what your body needs and NOT refined sugar)

Depends on the herb.

If you take them early in the morning on empty stomach before breakfast it will do you good for the whole day

Not true.  herbs are best taken in small frequent doses for a reason.  They are metabolized and/or eliminated by the body relatively quick in most cases.  If the herbs are taken once a day the active components will have a short peak then the levels will start dropping and the effectiveness of the herb will be lost.  By taking smaller, frequent doses the levels of active constituents remains at therapeutic levels longer.  In addition, taking high levels of some herbs does not increase benefit, but actually creates waste.  Silica sources such as horsetail again is a waste in higher doses since the body can only assimilate trace amounts of silica at a time.  By taking silica supplements throughout the day rather than just in the morning more silica is assimilated overall.  And some herbs cannot be taken in single large doses anyway.  Can you imagine taking a large dose of a harsh laxative like senna first thing in the morning?  It would not be a pretty sight.  And some herbs have toxicity, which is why they cannot be taken in large doses regardless.  Lobelia for example will make you vomit if you take too much as a protective mechanism.  If you do not vomit it up for some reason then you can suffocate from the over relaxation of the lung muscles.  These are some of the reasons herbs are best taken in smaller, frequent doses, not a single large dose in the morning as the author implies.

Start with a low dosage and increase, if you want to within month and your body will tell you, if the dosage you are using is o.k. 

This is a really stupid statement.  First of all the dosage will depend a lot on the herb and what is being treated.  Let's say for example you are trying to treat a cold with andrographis.  Well a small dose is not going to do much of anything for you.  And your cold will have gone away on its own long before the month is over.  So why bother?  And again some herbs can have a toxicity.  By the time your body tells you if the dosage is OK it sometimes means the damage is already done.  For example, if someone uses a stimulant herb such as guarana they can crash their adrenals before they realize what is going on by symptoms.  And berberine herbs like goldenseal, barberry and Oregon grape root will kill the flora, can damage the intestinal lining and raise blood pressure.  This is why these herbs are not recommended long term, especially in high doses.  And again, by the time these side effects show up the damage has been done.  As another example in uva ursi, which should not be used more than 4 consecutive days without a break to prevent kidney irritation/inflammation.

The good thing is also you will not get addicted to tinctures

Again depends on the herb.  Guarana or kola (bissy) nut can be addictive due to their high caffeine content, which is a very addictive drug.  The alcohol used to make the tincture does not negate this effect.

Besides tinctures are easier to swallow and cost a fraction of the price compared to capsules.

Another misleading claim.  Tinctures are considerably more costly than capsules.  Even the author eludes to this in his original statement where he claims that there are very few tincture manufacturers due to cost.

In my opinion tinctures are rarely worth the higher cost.  One of the few times I recommend tinctures is in the case of asthma.  If trying to stop an asthma attack immediate results are required.  The person cannot wait even 5-10 minutes or more for an herb compound to enter the bloodstream if taken orally regardless of the form.  Absorption speed is dependent in part on the amount of food in the stomach.  But a tincture to stop an asthma attack can be taken sublingually to go right in to the bloodstream regardless of the amount of food in the stomach.  Therefore this is one of the rare cases where a tincture is more desirable over a powder or capsule.  For most conditions though such as heart disease or arthritis the few minutes saved on absorption time by tinctures is not going to justify the much higher cost of tinctures.  Tinctures are not going to rebuild your arthritic joints any faster than a powder or capsule. Furthermore the silica in herbs is primary bound in the insoluble fibers, which ARE NOT extracted in tinctures.  And silica is the most important nutrient needed in the healing of various conditions including atherosclerosis, emphysema, diverticulitis, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, kidney disease, etc.  So often people are paying more for tinctures that can be less effective than herbal powders and capsules.