Valerian Tincture

Valerian Tincture

I’m catching up on my herbal coursework through Birth Arts, so the next few posts will probably be herbal-related. It’ll still be fun. I decided early on in the course that I needed to drastically decrease my stress levels. I’m still working on that, but there are many better days. As one of my stress helps, I decided to do a simple, a valerian tincture to help me sleep. Valerian is commonly used to aid sleep and relieve stress.

I order my herbs from Mountain Rose Herbal (highly recommend) unless I’m growing them, and my Valerian came from MRH. I also used 100 proof vodka. 100 proof gives the best balance of alcohol and water (in my humble opinion) which is why I use it.

I initially tried this tincture in a small dropper bottle. I’m not sure what possessed me to do so other than the fact that it used very little herb and it would be the size bottle I planned to use for the finished product.

It didn’t work out well.

I filled the entire little bottle with the Valerian, which became pretty tightly packed. Then I added all the  vodka I could. (Yes, you can fill a bottle twice when it comes to herbs). I allowed it to sit for at least six weeks (I don’t have the dates written down now) and attempted to strain it. I couldn’t get the Valerian out of the bottle and got the equivalent of 10 drops of tincture from the bottle. I tossed it.

When I tried it again, I used a half pint canning jar, like you’d use for jelly. This time I decided to fill it about ¾ of the way full. I was afraid of using a good bit of my Valerian and not being able to get it out of the jar again. I again used the 100 proof vodka and filled the jar. I shook the jar well as I added the bottle (capping it of course) to get as much vodka as I could throughout the Valerian. I then allowed my working tincture to sit in a dark place. I shook it in the first couple of weeks daily or so, and as the Valerian swelled a bit, found that I didn’t need to shake it very often at all.

I started this on December 30, 2010.

On March 12, 2011, I got ready to drain and strain it. I had wanted it to sit at least six weeks, but had to find a time when it didn’t matter than my hands smelled like gym socks to strain it. (Good valerian has a very gym socks kind of smell.)

I started by getting out another half pint jar. I’ve found it easier to strain into a similar jar and then rebottle into a dark bottle than it is for me to strain into the dark bottle with dropper. This way I can use a large mouth funnel with my wire strainer, which works well for herbs of this size. I strain slowly, allowing the tincture to drip out, and I sometimes coax a little more by pressing lightly with a spoon. This is not a time to be rough and forceful, but to allow the tincture to come out on its own.

In the end, I was left with this much: 

A much better amount than the first attempt.

Unfortunately, Valerian is a very bitter, strong herb. It truly does smell like dirty gym socks. I hate to say that I haven’t used it, but based on those pugent odors I have not. I feel I would need to add some things to it and use less Valerian to be able to get a treatment I could take.