A tincture is typically made of concentrated herbal extracts by soaking parts of the herb, botanical, or another plant (such as its leaves, berries, roots, or bark) in a solution made from ethanol (ethyl alcohol) or another solvent.

The History of Tinctures

Tinctures have been used for generations. Though there isn’t a clear consensus, some say that it was the Egyptians who first discovered how to distill alcohol for tinctures, perfumes, and medicinal purposes, while others credit India, Mesopotamia, or China, possibly even dating back to 2000 B.C. The first known publication to discuss tinctures is dated in the year 1025, when the book The Al-Qanoon fi al Tibb (The Canon of Medicine) was published, which discusses herbal tinctures.

While it’s hard to say exactly who first learned to distill alcohol and use it for this purpose, as well as precisely how long tinctures have been used, we do know that they have been one of the oldest ways to get herbal supplements often used in Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, and other traditional medicines.

Why Use a Tincture?

Tinctures are usually used for herbs and botanicals that have beneficial properties. A tincture provides an easy way to receive these traditional herbs that many people may not have access to otherwise.

Additionally, using tinctures allow those who may have trouble swallowing pills or capsules to receive the benefits of herbs more easily.

How to Use a Tincture

Taking a tincture is easy!

By using the dropper to extract the liquid from the bottle, you can simply take the liquid by mouth or, you may add a dose of the tincture to your favorite juice, smoothie, or any other liquid!

Make sure to pay attention to the dosage when taking a tincture to ensure that you do not take too much of a specific product or supplement, and always ask your physician or healthcare professional to make sure that the recommended dosage is suitable for you.

MaryRuth’s Tinctures

MaryRuth’s has many herbal supplements in tincture form available! Our tinctures are glycerine (also called glycerol or glycerine) based. Glycerin is a type of carrier, or base liquid, that some of our vitamin and herbal tinctures are suspended in.

While many traditional tinctures use an alcohol base, we opted to choose glycerin for a number of reasons. It can be sourced from vegan ingredients like palm, mustard seed, soybean, and coconut, which means it can be an organic ingredient (if sourced from organic mustard seed, etc).

Additionally, glycerin is a natural sweetener, which makes our products more palatable.

Check out some of MaryRuth’s herbal tinctures!