tincture

To prepare a tincture place 4 oz. dried or 8 oz. fresh, finely chopped or ground herb into a mason jar or cleaned pasta sauce jar. Pour 1 pint of 60 or greater proof decent liqour over the herb and seal the jar. Store in a warm, dark place for two weeks, shaking twice daily.

Now, decant the liquid and place the herb in cheesecloth or a thin towel, over a bowl. Wring the cloth to squeeze out all the liquid, and use the residual herb to fertilize your garden. Place all the liquid in a tightly sealed and tinted or otherwise light-impervious non-plastic container.

This preparation should keep indefinitely, and as little as 5-15 drops, depending on your physiology, etc, will achieve a therapeutic effect. My favorites are sleepy herbs like passion flower, valerian, or catnip, combined with some floral notes like lavender, rose, or jasmine. I can add some to a hot cup of water when I'm having a restless night and drift off into peaceful sleep.

Tinc"ture (?), n. [L. tinctura a dyeing, from tingere, tinctum, to tinge, dye: cf. OE. tainture, teinture, F. teinture, L. tinctura. See Tinge.]

1.

A tinge or shade of color; a tint; as, a tincture of red.

2. Her.

One of the metals, colors, or furs used in armory.

⇒ There are two metals: gold, called or, and represented in engraving by a white surface covered with small dots; and silver, called argent, and represented by a plain white surface. The colors and their representations are as follows: red, called gules, or a shading of vertical lines; blue, called azure, or horizontal lines; black, called sable, or horizontal and vertical lines crossing; green, called vert, or diagonal lines from dexter chief corner; purple, called purpure, or diagonal lines from sinister chief corner. The furs are ermine, ermines, erminois, pean, vair, counter vair, potent, and counter potent. See Illustration in Appendix.

3.

The finer and more volatile parts of a substance, separated by a solvent; an extract of a part of the substance of a body communicated to the solvent.

4. Med.

A solution (commonly colored) of medicinal substance in alcohol, usually more or less diluted; spirit containing medicinal substances in solution.

⇒ According to the United States Pharmacopeia, the term tincture (also called alcoholic tincture, and spirituous tincture) is reserved for the alcoholic solutions of nonvolatile substances, alcoholic solutions of volatile substances being called spirits.

Ethereal tincture, a solution of medicinal substance in ether.

5.

A slight taste superadded to any substance; as, a tincture of orange peel.

6.

A slight quality added to anything; a tinge; as, a tincture of French manners.

All manners take a tincture from our own. Pope.

Every man had a slight tincture of soldiership, and scarcely any man more than a slight tincture. Macaulay.

© Webster 1913.

Tinc"ture, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tinctured (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Tincturing.]

1.

To communicate a slight foreign color to; to tinge; to impregnate with some extraneous matter.

A little black paint will tincture and spoil twenty gay colors. I. Watts.

2.

To imbue the mind of; to communicate a portion of anything foreign to; to tinge.

The stain of habitual sin may thoroughly tincture all our soul. Barrow.

© Webster 1913.