A tincture is a herb steeped in alcohol until the alcohol has drawn out what the plant holds, then strained and bottled. The alcohol does two jobs at once: it dissolves constituents that water leaves behind, and it preserves the result for years. That is why a tincture comes in a small amber bottle with a dropper, and why a few drops of it stand in for a whole cup of tea. At La Ferme À Ciel Sur Mer we sell dried herbs rather than finished tinctures, so this guide is written from the maker's side of the jar: what the word means, how to read a label, how a tincture differs from an extract or a glycerite, how one is taken, how long it keeps, and what to know about the alcohol itself.
This is the "what" post. The hands-on "how" lives in our step-by-step guides to making an echinacea tincture, a milky oats tincture and a skullcap tincture, and the overview of every method, from teas to salves, is our guide to making herbal remedies at home.
What "Tincture" Means
The word is older than the bottle. English took tincture from the Latin tinctura, the act of dyeing, around 1400, when it meant a colouring agent; the sense of a medicine dissolved in alcohol is recorded from the 1640s. Pharmacy kept the word and tightened it. The United States Pharmacopeia defines tinctures as alcoholic or hydroalcoholic solutions prepared from vegetable materials, and by its convention a tincture of a potent plant represents 10 grams of plant per 100 millilitres, while most others represent 20 grams per 100 millilitres, which is the 1:5 ratio herbalists still use.
Health Canada uses the word the same way. Its herbal monographs list "Tincture" among the non-standardized extracts a licensed product may be made as, alongside fluid extracts, decoctions and infusions; the lemon balm, skullcap and echinacea monographs all do. Everyday herbalism is looser but points the same way: a liquid extract made with alcohol, taken by the drop. Where the liquid is glycerin or vinegar, most herbalists say glycerite or herbal vinegar; as one American maker puts it, strictly speaking only extracts made with alcohol are tinctures.
How a Tincture Is Made: Menstruum, Ratio and Strength
Three numbers describe any tincture, and they are usually printed on the label. The first is the menstruum, the herbalist's word for the liquid doing the extracting, which for a tincture is alcohol diluted with water. The second is the ratio, written herb to liquid, and it is always weight to volume: 1:5 means one gram of herb for every five millilitres of menstruum, so 100 grams of dried lemon balm takes 500 millilitres. The third is the alcohol percentage of that menstruum. Proof is simply double the percentage, so 80-proof vodka is 40% alcohol and 190-proof grain spirit is 95%.
Two conventions cover almost every herb. Dried plant material is tinctured at 1:5, in a menstruum of roughly 40 to 60% alcohol; ordinary 40% vodka is the home standard, and the Herbal Academy gives 50 to 65% as the working range. Fresh plant material is tinctured at 1:2, in the highest-proof alcohol you can buy, because a fresh leaf or root is itself mostly water and dilutes whatever you pour over it. The percentage is chosen for what you want out of the plant. Herbal Reality's rule of thumb runs from about 25% alcohol for the water-soluble constituents, through 50 to 60% for essential oils, to 75% for alkaloids and terpenes and 90% for resins. Our own recipes follow those conventions: dried lemon balm and dried skullcap at 1:5 in 40 to 50%, fresh echinacea root at 1:2 in a spirit of 50% or more, and fresh milky oat tops at 1:2 in 90 to 95%.
There is a simpler way, and it has a name. The folk method skips the scale: fill a jar loosely with herb, cover it completely with vodka, seal, label and wait. It makes a perfectly good household tincture; what it cannot do is tell you the strength of what you made, which is why anyone selling a tincture, or comparing one batch with the next, works by weight to volume. Either way the jar sits in a cool, dark cupboard for two to six weeks with a daily shake, then is strained and pressed.
Tincture, Extract, Glycerite or Infusion?
Extract is the umbrella word. Health Canada's quality guide defines an extract as a substance prepared by treating plant material with solvents to selectively obtain a subset of its constituents, and every tincture, glycerite and fluid extract is an extract by that definition. What separates them is the solvent and the concentration. A tincture uses alcohol at 1:5 or so. A fluid extract is a tincture concentrated to 1:1, one gram of herb in every millilitre, five times stronger and a professional product rather than a kitchen one. A glycerite uses vegetable glycerin in place of the alcohol. A herbal vinegar uses apple cider vinegar.
The water preparations are different again. An infusion is a tea and a decoction is a simmered tea for roots and bark; both are drunk the same day, and both leave behind the resins, alkaloids and aromatic compounds alcohol reaches. That is the real reason to make a tincture: it captures a different slice of the plant and holds it. Marshmallow root is the instructive exception. Its mucilage is water-soluble and alcohol is a poor partner for it, which is why our marshmallow root tea is a cold infusion rather than a tincture, and why the demulcent herbs generally stay with water.
How to Read a Tincture Label
A good label tells you what is in the bottle and how strongly: the plant, with its Latin name and the part used, since echinacea root and echinacea tops are different tinctures; fresh or dried; the ratio; the alcohol percentage; and the date. On a bottle you made yourself those five lines are the whole label, and our recipes all say the same thing: write them down before the jar goes in the cupboard, because in six weeks you will not remember.
A tincture sold in Canada with a health claim is a natural health product licensed by Health Canada, and its label carries more: an eight-digit Natural Product Number (NPN), a Product Facts table, the medicinal ingredients with the quantity of each per dose and, for an extract, the extract ratio. Health Canada's quality guide explains how to read that ratio: "For a liquid extract, a ratio of 1:5 means that 1 g of crude material was used to prepare 5 mL of extract". The label also lists the non-medicinal ingredients by common name, and that is where the solvent appears: alcohol, ethanol or grain alcohol on one kind of bottle, glycerin or vegetable glycerine on the other. Health Canada's labelling guidance does not define the phrase "alcohol-free", so read it as a claim to check against that list: if ethanol appears in any form, the bottle contains alcohol. Our home apothecary guide covers labelling your own jars.
How to Take a Tincture
By the drop, diluted. The traditional way is to squeeze the dropper into a little water or juice and drink it. Some people hold it under the tongue first; herbalists disagree about how much that adds, and the alcohol stings, so a small glass of water is the sensible default. A tincture is concentrated, which is the point, so amounts are small: a dropper from a standard 30-millilitre bottle holds about a millilitre, roughly twenty-five to thirty-five drops depending on the liquid. We do not give doses on this blog, and nor should a general guide; the amount depends on the herb, the ratio, the strength and the person. A licensed product states its dose on the label, and a home tincture is a question for a herbalist or your healthcare provider.
What we can say is how the form is used. A tincture is the practical choice when you want a measured amount at a particular moment, or a herb taken daily over weeks in a form that travels and keeps. It is the wrong choice for a mucilage-rich herb, and no better than tea for a herb whose value is mostly minerals, which is why the milky oats guide keeps the long infusion for the minerals and the tincture for the fresh milky stage. Our nervine herbs post explains when herbalists reach for a tincture rather than a tea.
Shelf Life and Storage
Alcohol is a preservative, and a tincture is the longest-keeping preparation a home herbalist makes. The usual herbalist estimate is three to five years; the working rule is that the finished tincture needs at least 20 to 25% alcohol to stay stable, which a 1:5 tincture in 40% vodka easily has, and which a fresh-herb tincture in 40% vodka may not, since the plant's own water dilutes the spirit. The honest caveat is that "still sound" and "still as strong" are different questions: a 2021 study of six mint-family tinctures, lemon balm among them, found their marker compound, rosmarinic acid, declining significantly over six months in closed amber glass at room temperature. A dated label is worth more than a rule of thumb.
Storage is simple: dark glass, a tight cap, a cool cupboard out of the sun, and a label. Do not water a tincture down for storage, since that lowers the alcohol below its preserving strength; dilute the dose, not the bottle. Glycerites keep one to two years by the same herbalist conventions, and herbal vinegars six months to a year. If you keep dried herb on hand to make more, our guide to storing dried herbs covers the jar end of the shelf.
Alcohol-Free Options: Glycerites and Vinegars
A glycerite steeps the herb in vegetable glycerin and water instead of alcohol. It is sweet, thick and gentle in the mouth, which is why herbalists commonly reach for it with children and people who do not drink, and it extracts the water-soluble constituents well. Its limits are the mirror of its advantages: glycerin is a poorer solvent than alcohol for resins and aromatic compounds, and a weaker preservative. The conventions are to keep the finished glycerite at 55 to 60% glycerin at minimum (Mountain Rose Herbs suggests 75% glycerin to 25% water for dried herb, undiluted for fresh) and to expect one to two years of shelf life. Our how to use lemon balm guide includes a glycerite, and the milky oats recipe gives a fresh-tops version.
Herbal vinegar is the older alcohol-free tradition. Apple cider vinegar pulls minerals well, which is why it is the classic menstruum for nettle and other mineral-rich leaves, and it keeps for months rather than years. For a herb whose character lives in its essential oils, hyssop for instance, neither glycerin nor vinegar captures what alcohol does; our hyssop guide gives that herb's tincture and an infused honey instead.
A Note on Safety
The first ingredient in a tincture is alcohol, and it deserves the same respect as any other. The amount in a dose is small but not nothing: a millilitre of a 40% tincture carries about a third of a gram of pure alcohol, roughly a fortieth of a bottle of beer. European medicines regulators ask that any oral medicine delivering between 100 milligrams and 3 grams of alcohol per dose state the amount on the leaflet, with its equivalent in beer or wine, and flag it for pregnant or breastfeeding people, children and anyone with liver disease, epilepsy or a history of alcohol dependence. The European Medicines Agency's herbal committee goes further for children: herbal products containing alcohol should not be used in infants under two, alcohol exposure in children should be minimised, and alternatives to alcohol should be considered, which is the case for glycerites in one sentence. Health Canada's monographs for the herbs we grow carry their own lines on top of the alcohol question: lemon balm asks you to consult a health care practitioner before use if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, skullcap rules the herb out in pregnancy and breastfeeding altogether, and echinacea asks the same consultation if you have an immune system disorder or take medication that suppresses the immune system.
Interactions are the second thing. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health notes that many herbal products have not been tested in pregnant women, nursing mothers or children, and that some can be harmful alongside particular prescription or over-the-counter medications; tell your healthcare provider or pharmacist what you take. Alcohol can add to the effect of sedatives, and so can the calming herbs most often tinctured, which is why Health Canada's lemon balm and skullcap monographs both warn of drowsiness. Daisy-family herbs such as echinacea call for a stop if any allergic reaction appears. Throughout this guide we describe how tinctures are traditionally made and used; a tincture is not a remedy for any disease, and the herb-specific cautions live in each herb's own post.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a tincture?
A tincture is a liquid herbal extract made by steeping plant material in alcohol and water, then straining it. The alcohol draws out constituents that water does not reach and preserves the extract for years, so a tincture is taken by the drop rather than by the cup.
What is the difference between a tincture and an extract?
Extract is the general word for anything drawn out of a plant with a solvent. A tincture is an extract made with alcohol, usually at 1:5 for dried herb; a fluid extract is concentrated to 1:1; a glycerite uses glycerin instead of alcohol.
What do 1:5 and 1:2 mean on a tincture label?
The ratio is herb weight to liquid volume. 1:5 means one gram of dried herb for every five millilitres of menstruum; 1:2 is the tighter ratio used for fresh herb, which carries its own water and needs a stronger spirit.
How do you take a tincture?
By the drop, diluted in a little water or juice. A dropper from a 30-millilitre bottle holds about a millilitre. The amount depends on the herb, the strength and the person; a licensed product states it on the label, and a home tincture is a question for a herbalist or your healthcare provider.
How long does a tincture last?
Alcohol tinctures keep for years, three to five by herbalist convention, as long as the finished tincture holds at least 20 to 25% alcohol and is stored in dark glass in a cool cupboard. Glycerites keep one to two years and herbal vinegars six months to a year.
Can you make a tincture without alcohol?
Yes. A glycerite steeps the herb in vegetable glycerin, kept at 55 to 60% glycerin or more; it is the form herbalists commonly use for children and people who avoid alcohol. Herbal vinegar is the other traditional option. Both are weaker on resins and keep for a shorter time.
Want to learn more? Check out our other guides on making herbal remedies at home:
- How to Make Herbal Remedies at Home: Infusions, Decoctions, Tinctures, Salves & Oils
- How to Make Milky Oats Tincture
- How to Start an Apothecary: Simple Steps to Build Your Herbal Home
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