Making a Cats Claw Tincture

I thought I would explain just how easy it is to make a tincture. It is beyond easy and the biggest hurdle is fear. Fear of the unknown.

Gather your ingredients first.

Mason jar, Dried plant material, Vegetable Glycerin if doing glycerite tincture or alcohol 40% strength if doing an alcohol tincture.

Dried plant material in this instance I bought Cats Claw Uncaria Tomentosa from a herb supplier. This is what looks like this in it’s dried form. I also bought it in a powdered form which is also convenient to use as one gets a stronger tincture from ground material.
In this form as in the picture below I bought 250g it was a large bag.

With the whole form one above I used it in vegetable glycerin filling a mason jar to the top with the hairy looking plant material and then filling the jar with veg glycerin right to the top. I turned and shook the jar for 4 weeks. It got stronger as time passed.

I ended up getting Cats Claw powdered and it’s quite a bit darker as in a darker orange as expected. I filled a mason jar to one third full of the powder and then filled the jar to the top with 40% alcohol ie vodka. Now if one is desperate and needs cats claw tincture this is the way to go because it processes way faster can be used within a few hours if need be, if one needs it even faster then use a decoction method.
Decoction: 1 tbsp in 1 cup of water bring to boil on the stove and drink the juice.

The strength of the glycerin style one is way weaker by far. It is extracting different things from the Cats Claw. Alcohol is a solvent and so is glycerin.

Here is a picture of the difference both of these are extractions of cats claw of the same age. The one on the left is the vegetable glycerin one and the one on the right is the alcohol extraction. The glycerin one is mild and the alcohol one is strong as in plant constituents one can taste the difference it is like night and day. As to what one uses it is up to them.

The glycerin one I take up to 3 dropper full’s at a time, when ever I feel the intuition that my body needs it. Sometimes it’s 3 times a day, sometimes it’s more, sometimes I don’t take it for 2 or 3 days. It is how one’s body feels and responds as to how I take it.

The alcohol one I put a dropper full in a glass of water and drink it, I don’t put it in my mouth full strength. For those worried about the alcohol content remember heat dissipates alcohol it evaporates off so put it in say half a cup of water in a tiny saucepan and heat it to the boil then add more water to it.

DO NOT BE LAZY AND USE A MICROWAVE

Bottling this well one can drain off some of their tincture and leave the rest sitting in the original mason jar with the alcohol in it as long as the herb material is covered with alcohol or glycerin. Otherwise if bottling it off just strain it in say a tulle bag and twist it until no more juice comes out. Of course there are fancy ways and presses and all sorts but I am making this post as easy as possible for the everyday person who has not done this before. Without going all technical with all the this strength and that strength business of 1:1 or 1:2 or 1:5 solvent medium to plant material etc. All that just confuses the person unless they are inclined that way. We need to make our own medicine and fast. Do not be disheartened by others, you can do it. Also then you can have the peace of mind that you know exactly what is in it, otherwise it is a trust thing.

If making for one’s self then it’s fine but making for others it is a whole different ball game and consistency is needed and dosage strength needs to be worked out.

People have been asking, and a person can make any kind of tincture they like with any plant material they want to. It’s a matter of identifying the plant and ensuring they know what it is used for and why they are using it and also know if it’s dangerous or not. Study the plant, get to know the plant and then look at the dosages that they recommend for it. A clue is to look at the strength of a tincture online 1:2 etc and see how many drops they are saying to take or dropper fulls. Also look at the opacity of the tincture in the dropper that is another good indicator or strength. The shelf life of a glycerin tincture is a lot shorter than and alcohol one so keep that in mind too.

If using fresh plant material you need a higher strength alcohol because the water content of plant will weaken the amt of alcohol that is in the liquid. If we do not have a high enough alcohol percentage then we can get bacterial and fungal growth and that is certainly not good. 80% or higher alcohol is good for fresh plant material but it depends on how tightly the jar is packed with fresh material or if one food processed it with say a stick blender and alcohol. The more surface area of the plant the alcohol can permeate the quicker it can extract it’s constituents. How one does it is entirely up to them. There is not right or wrong way although some may argue because of tradition or whatever, each to their own. Just make your own medicine and be your own MD.

I am also looking at doing a tincture of Cats Claw with Alcohol and DMSO or even straight DMSO but that is for another day.

The person who put me onto Cats Claw is Geneva and I cannot thank you enough for that. I first came across Geneva through a post of hers about the shedding and how she was having success with her very sick elderly C19 jabbed Mother. I can personally attest to her spike tea and I have made it into a tincture and it also works wonderfully. Check out Geneva's Substack

Everything happens for a reason, chance meetings or the fleeting moments of finding a snippet of information that opens up a whole other world of possibilities are the moments that I cherish.

Thank you for reading my substack. Wishing you the very best of health.