By: Tom Lasher Herb Tinctures Recipe Well, the basics are actually quite simple. Collect the herb that you wish to use at a propitious time. You'll want to research what part of the plant to collect. This should be fresh material hopefully. Grind the material up a bit.(though I do notice that the Chinese herbalists will often leave a big ol ginseng root whole in the bottle. I believe they must leave the tincture sit significantly longer) Put the material in a glass jar. Get some grain alcohol or some 100 proof vodka from the store and cover the material in the jar with it, and cover the jar. I leave the herb soaking for about a month. Each day I gently agitate the jar. At the end of a month, I strain off the herb through cheesecloth and discard it. What's left is your tincture. I try to leave it in a darkish place to store. Talking with an herbalist friend of mine and he will leave the material in the jar ad infinitum. When he wants to use the tincture, then he will strain it. So that is another option. Also you can use apple cider vinegar instead of alcohol. Some folks here have done that and they say it works pretty good. I am interested in this because the kids hate to take the alcohol.