How To Prepare Glycerine Tincture

Next to organic alcohol, glycerine makes a fine preservative for storing tinctures because of two main reasons; its preservative abilities are as good as alcohol, if not better, and its capacity to extract active principles from herbs are commercially acceptable. Glycerine can extract essential oils from herbs much better than alcohol, but its capacity to extract resins and gums are quite low when compared to alcohol.

Tinctures prepared from glycerine are best known for their excellent quality as the extracted vital components are at their fullest and the overall effectiveness of the tincture is outstanding. If proper processes and methods are used to extract tinctures, you can store them for a long time. Glycerine makes a fine blend with herbal extracts and the fragrance and smell obtained by glycerin tincture method is exotic as well as earthy.

The most common procedure that is used to make a glycerine tincture is given below:

• To prepare a glycerine tincture you can use either fresh herbs or finely ground dried herbs. Fresh herbs must be finely chopped.
• To make one liter of tincture, you’ll need to use about 250 gm of herbs.
• Glycerine tincture can be prepared in a ceramic pan or a China clay pot so that the mixture isn’t contaminated with any metal residues.
• Pour the finely chopped herbs into the pot and slowly add about one liter of glycerine to completely immerse the herb.
• Start the fire and slowly heat up the contents to boiling point; make sure that you simmer the content once the mixture has boiled completely.
• The recommended strength of glycerine is around 50%.
• Pour the simmered mixture in to a glass container and close it very tight.
• Allow the mixture to mature for about 20 days.
• Never forget to shake the container vigorously at least once a day
• After 20days, strain out the mixture using a fine sieve.
• You can also press the muddy remains to expel tincture from them and make sure that there are not large herb particles in the concentrated tincture,

Uses of Glycerine Tincture: This tincture has many uses and benefits like:

• Treating lacerations, wounds and cuts,
• Glycerine tincture also acts as a skin rejuvenator and moisturizer,
• Healing minor ailments like cough, colds and sore throat,
  
• It can also be used as an effective winter salve to prevent skin peeling and flaking.