This is what I think. So if you made a full strength tincture of each herb and then blended equal portions of them together in one jar…lets call them Herbal Tincture A and Herbal Tincture B…full dose of each herbal tincture would have to be equal for this to work. So say that full dose of Herbal Tincture A is one-half teaspoon and full dose of Herbal Tincture B is one-half teaspoon. The full dose of your formula (Herbal Tincture A + B) would be one whole teaspoon.

I don’t think that would work, however, if the full dose of Herbal Tincture A is one whole teaspoon and the full dose of Herbal Tincture B is one-half teaspoon…because the blend would be wrong if you are mixing equal parts of each tincture up in your Formula jar. So…maybe in this case…you could mix your formula in your jar: 2 parts of Herbal Tincture B to 1 part of Herbal Tincture  A.

I’m just guessing here…I’m a beginner to tincture making myself.

I wonder if you are using different alcohol proofs for different herbs how that complicates things?

I’m totally willing to be wrong, but I’m thinking this (using ratio method here).

Tincture 1 is 1:5 mark to menstruum (herb to alcohol), and let’s say you have 1 oz and you’re taking 1/2 tsp

Tincture 2 is 1:5 and you have 1 oz and you’re taking 1/2 tsp

Put them together and you  have 2 parts herb to 10 parts alcohol within 2 ounces, because 1 part is herb A, 1 part is herb B, and the rest is alcohol.

Reduce that (see, fractions are used later in life) and you are back to 1:5 herb to alcohol within 2 ounces (because the ratio of 2:10 is the same as the ratio of 1:5), but now that new 1 part consists of a combo of 2 herbs.  Make sense?  The potency isn’t affected and nothing disappeared (unless you spill like I do), so you take the same amount you have before, which was 1/2 tsp of each, or 1 tsp of the two put together.  Combining them would just provide convenience in this case.

It would be the same if you tinctured those two herbs together…you could put 1 part herb A and 1 part herb B.  You’d use the same amount of herb as in the single herb tincture, but because you have 2 parts herb, you’ll need 10 parts alcohol to get the 1:5 ratio.  See the same thing happening?

I know some herbs are synergistic and 1+1=3, but I wouldn’t attempt to guess how the synergy affects the potency, and I don’t know what all herbs do that.  That’s for smart guys like Doc.

And don’t feel badly about asking…I had to work that one out on paper (Imma nerd) and that’s what made sense to me!  HTH!

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Elizabeth

So, on the first question, mixing tinctures that have already been made can sometimes end badly because some herbs contain high levels of tannins and some contain high levels of alkaloids. When you mix those two chemicals, you get something very like Elmer’s glue. There is a list in the Tincture medicine making lesson. See slides 34 & 35

Making Herbal Medicines: Lesson 1 – Introduction and General Principles

As to the dosing question, When I dose a formula tincture, I typically dose it very similarly to what I would do for a single herb. The formula seems to have a synergistic effect that makes it more like single new plant than several combined and a regular 1/2 to 1 tsp dose tends to do the trick.

On the alcohol question, If you want to blend two tinctures with two different proofs of alcohol, it won’ affect the medicine at all. The only reason we use different proofs of alcohol for different plants is for the extraction requirements. Once the extraction has happened alcohol’s role is merely preservative and any thing 80 proof or higher will be just fine.

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Janet_Doug Cannon, Karen, Elizabeth

Reposting Greg’s question from above in case others missed it.

“So if mixing those two tinctures would create something similar to glue, would that same interaction happen if you took those two tinctures internally one right after the other? Or do they require time to sit and meld before something like that were to happen?”