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NMR.Xochipilli
Strangerer



Registered: 11/09/09
Posts: 272
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Reishi Tincture
#14012817 - 02/23/11 10:27 AM (12 years, 11 months ago) |
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Hi shroomery!
I've looked in a few books and can't seem to find the info I'm looking for. I've seen several methods for preparing reishi for ingestion but very little comment on making a tincture with a long shelf life. In The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook James Green says that water extractions (teas) don't keep and need to be used immediately but to do a two hour boil and 30 min. simmer(GGMM) everyday is kinda tedious. Aurora mentions a wine extraction but there is no comment on shelf life. I've also read many shroomery members doing a 100 proof alcohol extraction. Should I do an alcohol extraction then make a tea with the same fruitbodies and mix them? Will that preserve the medicinal qualities? I've also considered glycerine but can find no info on it related to reishi tinctures. My goal is to make the 3-5 times a day dosing thing less time consuming, if I could make up a batch that would last even a week it would be of great benefit.
Any help is much appreciated.
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EvilMushroom666
Heretic




Registered: 11/18/09
Posts: 10,289
Loc: Canada
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http://www.amazon.ca/Mushrooms-Health-Medicinal-Secrets-Northeastern/dp/0892728086/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1298484152&sr=8-6
The book above has a great TEK on making water based and alcohol based tin cures. He then has a formula that you add the alcohol tin cure to the water tin cure at a certain % and it will keep a lot better, as well as give you more of the active medicinal ingredients from your mushrooms, seeing as some things separate out into water better then alcohol and vise versa.
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NMR.Xochipilli
Strangerer



Registered: 11/09/09
Posts: 272
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Do you know if the alcohol or water extraction is done first?
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EvilMushroom666
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Registered: 11/18/09
Posts: 10,289
Loc: Canada
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From the book posted above: Mushrooms For Health - Medicinal secrets of Northeastern Fungi By Greg A, Marley
Quote:
"To take advantage of the full range of medicinal properties mushrooms represent, you want to extract both their alcohol soluble and their water soluble compounds. Double extraction involves first making a simple alcohol tincture, then a hot water decoction, and finally blending the two together in the proper ratio. Mushrooms species best extracted using the double tincture method include Reishi, Chaga, Artists Conk, Birch polypore Red Belted polypore. "
You want the alcohol content of your tincture to be 20-25% or higher. You do the extractions separately and then mix them together so that the mix contains 75% Water extract, and 25% alcohol extract using the alcohol content, not by volume. The author goes into great detail on how to figure out mathematically that your mixture is at this level, but I do not feel it would be right to type out 4+ pages of this book.
I highly suggest buying it, is full of great info on the properties of most common medicinal mushrooms, along with some foraging tips, extraction tips, and ingestion tips.
Hope this helps
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NMR.Xochipilli
Strangerer



Registered: 11/09/09
Posts: 272
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It's on the way...agreed on the not typing out 1/2 the book thing. Thanks for the help.
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EvilMushroom666
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Registered: 11/18/09
Posts: 10,289
Loc: Canada
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No problem, you will not be disappointed, the book is a great read and a great resource.
Let me know how it works out for you, as I currently have 4 blocks of reishi growing and will be making a tincture after harvest and drying.

Also note the above extraction was for use with dried specimens. When doing extractions from fresh mushrooms it is hard to factor in the water content of the fruits.
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NMR.Xochipilli
Strangerer



Registered: 11/09/09
Posts: 272
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Will do...I'm planning a 18hr. soak in 190 proof then a 1.5 hr. boil in water. The water extraction will probably be more of a decoction, I want to reduce the volume of each fraction to make the dose volume=a shot.
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jwantbeer
Trying Hard


Registered: 01/01/11
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Is the ratio that critical ? Anything with 20 or 30% alcohol be O.K. ? When you extract the alkaloids from poppy straw via alcohol many recommend steeping for weeks ! Why not the same for Reishi ?
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pepper
SawDust Block Junkie



Registered: 10/31/10
Posts: 646
Loc: British Columbia
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Quote:
EvilMushroom666 said: You want the alcohol content of your tincture to be 20-25% or higher. You do the extractions separately and then mix them together so that the mix contains 75% Water extract, and 25% alcohol extract using the alcohol content, not by volume. The author goes into great detail on how to figure out mathematically that your mixture is at this level, but I do not feel it would be right to type out 4+ pages of this book.
I highly suggest buying it, is full of great info on the properties of most common medicinal mushrooms, along with some foraging tips, extraction tips, and ingestion tips.
Hope this helps
Sounds like a good read. Thanks for the tip...
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Reishi
Reishi Lover

Registered: 12/15/10
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My method is I place one part sliced reishi in a jar to 2 parts alcohol (100 proof) and let it sit for 4 weeks min. Next I strain the liquid and put away. I take the reishi and add about 5 parts water and boil for a few hours. I remove the reishi and reduce the liquid until its like a syrup. I then take the syrupy liquid and add it to the alcohol extraction. Thats my method for a double extraction.
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NMR.Xochipilli
Strangerer



Registered: 11/09/09
Posts: 272
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Re: Reishi Tincture [Re: Reishi]
#14022247 - 02/24/11 08:16 PM (12 years, 11 months ago) |
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yup, I'm definitely upping the soak time-18hr's seems blatantly too short
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solumvita
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Registered: 02/12/08
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if you use dried reishi it is also best to put it through a blender first as it will help to increase the potency of your tincture.
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NMR.Xochipilli
Strangerer



Registered: 11/09/09
Posts: 272
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Re: Reishi Tincture [Re: solumvita]
#14047098 - 03/01/11 06:31 AM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Thanks solumvita-
I blended the hell out of it, couldn't imagine any better way since it was in solution anyway. I was struggling big time when it was dry, butcher knife wasn't even enough.
I'm doing the water extraction phase today....must add that my french press has never been as handy as right now.
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mycoelf
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Alkaloids
3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine



Registered: 11/15/98
Posts: 743
Loc: pubis mons
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Re: Reishi Tincture [Re: mycoelf]
#14049399 - 03/01/11 04:09 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Great questions and great answers. That book is on my reading list... right .. meow. have fun with those tinctures NMR
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BlueLightRain
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Re: Reishi Tincture [Re: Alkaloids]
#14052673 - 03/02/11 02:45 AM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Yeah that looks like it's going to be one of my next purchases. I've been wanting to learn more about tinctures, especially when applied to mushrooms! Also, I have Artist's Conk growing outside and would love to get as much from that as I can.
I have nothing to add about extracting through alcohol but I do have this tidbit of advice. To the OP's original concern with boiling for 2 hours daily...make a batch boil. I boiled turkey tail, reishi, and artist's conk together in a large cauldron, probably about 6-8 quarts worth (which reduced a few quarts) for two hours, put them in jars and stowed them in the fridge. Wake up every morning, reheat, add honey, maybe some nettle, and I'm good to go!
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NMR.Xochipilli
Strangerer



Registered: 11/09/09
Posts: 272
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So this is how it went down-
1. I chopped the conks into big pieces and submerged them in 190 proof everclear. 2. After a soak of about 6 hrs. the brew was put in the blender and given a good amount of hell treatment. 3. The blended mixture soaked in a mason jar in a dark closet for 3 days...at that point I gave it another round with the blender. I was really concerned about penetration of the ethanol without prior heat treatment for denaturation. 4. A four day soak after that finished out a week long ethanol soak. 5. Using a french press(same as for coffee) I separated the solid material and alcohol. 6. At this point I reduced the alcohol to the right volume in a hot water bath. I wanted my tincture to be 50proof and I wanted each dose to equal 44mL, the same as a standard 1.5oz shot. Personalize your math but I cheat and pretend to have 200 proof alcohol, run the numbers(dividing total fruitbody weight by desired dose weight)=#of doses. Multiply the # of doses by 44mL. Allow the alcohol to represent 25% of that total volume. Since I cheated for easy math I do just a few mL's more alcohol than what I figure out in my head to make sure and get it to 50 proof. 7. The pressed reishi then got soaked in lukewarm diH20 for 12 hrs., with occasional stirring. Cold water phase is important, don't just dump it in hot water, use the cold to get the full spectrum of waters solvent abilities. 8. It was heated to simmer for 1 hr. but I had to go to school so the hotplate had to get turned off and the mixture cooled. I came back brought it back up to temp. and continued the simmer for about 1.5-2 hrs. 9. After the simmer I separated the solids and liquids (while hot to maintain more things in solution). Buy a french press, they make better coffee than machines anyway. It saved my life in this extraction. I have a buchner with side arm and a strong pump. I don't think it could have worked as well as the press. 10. The water portion was reduced to equal 75% of the total volume figured out in step 6. Doing the reductions is nice because you can add too much of your solvent, making it easier for the stir plate to keep the solids moving around in solution. It takes all the pre-measuring of liquids out of the picture, just add too much and fix it later. 11. Added em together, put it in an amber bottle. Thanks for the input shroomery.
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EvilMushroom666
Heretic




Registered: 11/18/09
Posts: 10,289
Loc: Canada
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Thanks for sharing with us!
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Alkaloids
3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine



Registered: 11/15/98
Posts: 743
Loc: pubis mons
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That's some good recipe info. thanks for sharing Have you tried this tincture then already?
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NMR.Xochipilli
Strangerer



Registered: 11/09/09
Posts: 272
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Re: Reishi Tincture [Re: Alkaloids]
#14055035 - 03/02/11 02:36 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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It's not for me, I'll be giving it to a friend this evening...so no I won't be consuming any. If any dramatic results are seen though I will mention them in a week'ish.
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