Re: milk thistle

Hello. The reason that tinctures are made with alcohol is that the ethyl alcohol is one of the best solvents to use. It ensures that both water and fat soluble compounds will dissolve into solution in order to be extracted. Plants are composed of a variety of organic chemicals, some of which dissolve in water and some that dissolve only in fat or other organic compunds like ether, ethyl alcohol or chloroform. Under normal conditions of room temperature and pressure alcohol will tend to dissolve only water soluble compounds. As you increase heat and pressure then the properties of the ethanol change somewhat allowing for the dissolution of fat soluble compounds. There are some processes that utilize vegetable oils for solubility, however this process is very long and arduous, requires significantly more technology than alcohol extraction and distillation, and is obviously more expensive. For instance: In Canada, a regular 30ml or 1oz. vial of valerian extract in 20% alcohol is about $10 Cdn. Whereas, a vial of vegetable oil processed valerian is about $25 Cdn. It is advisable to put the drops of tincturs in a glass of moderately hot water, not boiling as it would contribute to the breakdown of important organic compounds. The alcohol will rise to the top of the glass until it is separated by a 95 to 5 ratio. Alcohol will always combine with water to form this ratio, but do not worry about this. It is a very small amount. That is why you can never obtain anything more pure than 95% grain alcohol for making distillates of herbal tinctures anyway. Then again if you are really concerned about the ethyl alcohol content use vegetable oil processed haerbs. You'll feel better about it. Good luck and God bless. J. Tweet