Home Remedies: Cold and Flu Tincture

Okay, not a tincture photographer either ;).

First off a disclaimer:  I am not, nor have I ever been, an ND, MD, worked in ANY of the medical fields or in any herbology capacity, never been an FDA employee or ever gotten evaluated by the FDA or associated organization.  So, please do not think that I am trying to say that the following recipe can treat or cure any disease.  I just find that this mixture helps MY family when colds and flu hit and that's why I'm sharing it.

This is a recipe I concocted through researching stuff all over the place and just picking and choosing (and *cough* using what I had honestly) to make a cold and flu tincture.  I made up a batch of this about three months ago and started adding some to drinks as colds and flu hit (mainly soda...if you can take it straight go ahead and do that).  This batch just got done (I gave away the rest of my last batch to relatives to help with bad colds going around), and thought of sharing the recipe.  It's full of immune boosters and herbs that give you things like vitamin C, so no worries about it containing anything really weird here.

So, here you are folks.  My "recipe" as it were for a cold and flu tincture.

Cold and Flu Tincture

Ingredients: 

• 1/4 cup dried Thyme Leaves (not powdered)
• 1/4 cup dried Echinacea Leaves or Root (I used leaves.  Roots are more powerful if you have them)
• 1/4 cup dried Elderberries
• 1/4 cup dried Calendula Petals
• 1/4 cup dried Licorice Root
• 1/4 cup dried Rose Hips

1.  Add all of the above to a quart mason jar and then fill up the jar with vodka (the cheap stuff works fine for this, but it has to be at least 80 proof to work).  Make sure to shake the jar to get everything mixed up well and then let the mixture steep for 6 weeks (be sure to label what's in it!) shaking the jar every day.

2.  Strain through cheesecloth and store in a glass tincture bottle.  Be sure to add a label (be sure to include ingredients on your label too).

 For dosing recommendations I use the following two resources usually:

My Healing Path (Page down to "Suggested Use for Herbal Tinctures" to see the dosing chart)

And for child doses:

Stony Mountain Botanicals (Page Down to "Dosages" to see the formulas for figuring child dosing).

Enjoy!