Herbs are powerhouses of essential nutrients and are the best – and cheapest – supplements nature has to offer. By using quality herbs from organic and nutrient-rich soils you can be sure you’re getting the highest quality nutrition available. Herbs are nature’s own take on preventative medicine as they will bolster your body while facilitating better vitality and minimizing disease!
There are many ways herbs can nourish the body as we discussed in the post, What’s the Difference Between Tinctures, Tonics and Teas
Teas can be made by soaking medicinal plant material either in cold water (as with the herbs marshmallow root, comfrey and slippery elm) or in hot water by using a process of infusion (steeping) or decoction (simmering).
When employing the basic method of tea-making with the right herbs you can unlock the power of nature to nourish your body, overcome nutritional deficiencies, and facilitate better vitality… all for just pennies a day!
You’ve probably read posts elsewhere from naturally-minded mommas about their “multi-vitamin” herbal tinctures, made either with alcohol, glycerin or raw vinegar.
But this is NOT the proper way to extract vitamins and minerals from herbs.
Quick lesson in Herbalism 101: Part of the art of herbalism includes understanding the chemical compounds that comprise an herb. Only then can you fully understand how a given herb works to facilitate healing in the body. Furthermore, each compound can only be extracted from an herb in certain solvents, like water, alcohol, glycerin, vinegar or oil. The key is to know which compounds you want to extract and then selecting the corresponding solvent. For instance, in our situation it’s important to know that minerals cannot be extracted by the solvent alcohol, which defeats our primary purpose. And other important compounds we desire (saponins, tannis and flavonoids) cannot be extracted using glycerin. (You can read more about herbs and their chemical compounds here).
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