Guest guest Posted February 27, 2010 Report Share Posted February 27, 2010 Ed, It certainly isn't true that alcohol is chosen as the menstrum for legal other than medicinal reasons. Alcohol is superior at extracting most herbs compared to vinegar, glycerin or honey. You get a greater medicinal output for any given amount of herbs. Herbs whose medicinal action comes from resins or terpenes require high alcohol concentrations. Further compared to water extractions alcohol is 30% more absorbed. Much of the alcohol goes into tissue long before it hits the liver, carrying the medicine in and invigorating the blood. Alcohol needs to be tempered with about 10% glycerin when the herbs are very astringent with tannins. And it cannot be used to stabilize pectin-rich decoctions because it will cause gelling which locks up constituents. Alcohol will not extract the medicinal mushrooms- the chitin must be broken down by long decoction- but it can be used post decoction to extract terpenes, to stabilize the decoction and to increase assimilation. Vinegar is used when you want to astringe tissues, but it must be used at a greater dosage than a medicinal wine because it extracts less well. On those herbs which are not antimicrobial, a live vinegar may possibly increase assimilation over a pasteurized vinegar- but because the bacteria could also break down the herbs I'd want to find some traditional use or at least experimentation. Antimicrobial herbs will probably kill off any vinegar bacteria, but you get a moderate extraction with vinegar. Honey helps the Spleen assimilate the herbs, although as an extraction medium it isn't great. I mostly use it when I am making syrups and may add alcohol extracts. It also takes a larger dosage. Honey can also be used for medicinal jams as it is in Ayurveda. In this case it is less useful for extraction than for preservation and assimilation. For topical use, the menstrum (egg white, vinegar, alcohol, turpentine) carries the herbs to different levels of the body. -- Karen Vaughan, MSTOM Licensed Acupuncturist, and Herbalist 253 Garfield Place Brooklyn, NY 11215 (718) 622-6755 Co-Conspirator to Make the World A Better Place: Visit http://www.heroicstories.com/ and join the conspiracy See my Acupuncture and Herbalism website at: http://www.acupuncturebrooklyn.com Eric, thanks for the comparisons. Vinegars are also used in medicinals. I understand the differences in shelf life and preparation of the varios solvents. But I am interested more in the rationale. The Ancients had choices. Why chose alcohol, vinegar, honey, or a powder ? In the United States alcohol is the choice - the industry standard - becasue of legal issues and not medicinal considerations. Of course not counting pills, capsules or granuales which I throw into the 'powder' catagory. Ed Kasper <%40>, " smilinglotus " <smilinglotus wrote: > > > > <%40>, " happyherbalist2001 " <eddy@> wrote: > > > Is there a major difference bewteen using alcohol, vinegar, or honey (not as in honey pills, but as syrups) in these herbal wines? > > Alcohol (40% and up) is usually the traditional base for wines. Vinegar is more commonly used as an excipient to make some types of traditional pills, and it is commonly the liquid base for external formulas ( " hit medicine, " common in the martial arts). Honey and molasses are more common in cough syrups, and these sugars often fail to deliver the shelf life that alcohol has to offer. > > A minor note on the pinyin from the original formula: It should be Gui Ban Jiao, not Gui Ban itself. Gui Ban Jiao is the gelatin of Gui Ban, it is similar to Lu Jiao Jiao in its consistency. For Korean ginseng, typically pharmacists refer to it as Gao Li Shen, as Ren Shen (Hong Shen) tends to refer to Chinese red ginseng rather than Korean red ginseng. As noted before, the original formula didn't differentiate Lu Jiao (mature antler) from Lu Rong (velvet antler), but it can be safely assumed that Lu Rong is the item intended, as starguard1 noted (the formula contains the gelatin Lu Jiao Jiao as well as the antler itself). > > Eric > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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