I was about to make some tinctures with what I currently have in terms of herbs and feel a bit stymied. All my previous coursework was doing the folk method and one of my motivations for taking this course was to learn to make better medicine. I have echinacea dry root herb as well as dry hops but both are indicated to use fresh. I can probably get fresh echinacea root next year but don't have access to fresh hops. Is there no point in making a tincture from either of these or could I still do them and just use the standard 1:4 ratio? It's amazing how many folk medicine making videos are out there!

David said: The standard dry tincture is actually 1:5, but 1:4 will work for some dry tinctures and are a bit stronger. Hops can be made dry if it is not too old, the strobes when ground fluff up, so this would be easier at 1:5. Echinacea once dried loses a great deal of its activity, is the root you have E. angustifolia or E. purpurea? E. angustifolia is stronger and you can chew the dried root, if it still gives you a mouth buzz, it is worth tincturing. E. purpurea root does not contain isobutylamides, which is why I make a tincture from the cones (which do contain isobutylamides) and from the fresh root (separately) and then combine them 50/50. As for the many videos’ of folk tincturing, it is easy to learn and do, unfortunately it only sometimes makes medicine really worth using.