Whole Plant Echinacea Tincture

This summer one of my goals was to make whole plant echinacea tincture, which utilizes the leaves, blossoms, and roots of an echinacea plant, with each part harvested at a different stage in the plant's growth.

Echinacea blooms join the leaves in the jar in mid-summer.

The idea is to harvest the leaves, blossoms, and roots at their peak potency. Leaves are picked before the plants blooms, chopped and added to a jar with 100 proof vodka.

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Echinacea leaves

Chopping the leaves leads to better extraction.

Label your jar with the contents and date.

In the summer when the beautiful pink blossoms emerge, they are picked and join the leaves in the solvent.  

So beautiful and so medicinal!

The color fades as the vodka extracts the medicinal constituents.

In late fall, the echinacea plant will move its energy down into its roots for winter storage.  This is the time to dig the plant and harvest the roots. The roots should be at least three years old at harvest time for maximum potency.

Freshly dug Echinacea Purpurea roots

Rinsed roots ready to be added to the leaves and flowers

Chopping the roots in a blender makes the final addition easy.

The roots are rinsed and chopped and then added to the jar along with the leaves and flowers. Echinacea roots are dense and difficult to chop.  I like to put them in my blender, add vodka, and pulse until the roots are in small pieces. 

The jar is then tucked away, out of sunlight for an additional 6 weeks, after which point the solids are strained from the solvent.  The finished tincture can then be stored in an amber glass dropper bottle for several years.

Detailed instructions for making herbal tinctures can be found in my Herbal Tincture Making Basics post.

This whole plant enchinacea tincture is powerful medicine as each part of the plant was harvested and extracted when it contained the most medicinal constituents.

Echinacea is our family's "go to" remedy when sneezing, sore throat, or a runny nose signal that a cold is imminent.  This herb helps stimulate the immune system so your body can more effectively fight the virus.   And it look pretty great in a flower garden as well!

Combining the use of echinacea, fire cider, rest, and additional fluids at the first sign of illness will very often stop a cold in its tracks!  

Why begin treatment at the first sign of a cold?  When viruses first enter our body their numbers are relatively small.  As the virus enters our cells and begins to replicate, the numbers grow and the body has to work harder to fight them. Herbs with antiviral properties work to suppress this replication.  This means the immune system has a smaller number of viruses to overcome.  Once your cold is full blown, echinacea will be only mildly effective.

Protection During the Cold and Flu Season provides information about some of the most popular antiviral remedies, including Fire Cider  and how to use them.

Click on Echinacea to learn more about this amazing plant.