Healthy Menopause Tonic by Herb Pharm

Healthy Menopause Tonic helps to relieve symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes and night sweats. Ingredients includes black cohosh, chaste tree berry, motherwort, licorice root, and pulsatilla flowering herb. *Contains grain alcohol – Call Beyond Health if you need further information or visit: www.herb-pharm.com Grain alcohol is the best food-grade solvent for extracting and preserving many of the naturally occurring herb constituents that are poorly soluble in water. What is the purpose of alcohol in liquid herbal extracts? The food-grade grain alcohol used to prepare liquid extracts serves three specific functions. First, alcohol is the only edible solvent that will extract and preserve many of the naturally occurring herb constituents that are poorly soluble in water, such as essential oils, resins, balsams and many alkaloids. Second, alcohol is an excellent natural preservative, which maximizes the shelf life of the extracts. Third, alcohol is a great carrying agent, which facilitates the absorption of the herb's constituents into the bloodstream. How much alcohol is in liquid herbal extracts and how much alcohol am I really consuming? The amount of alcohol in individual liquid extracts can vary from 20% to 90% depending on the herb being extracted and its content of alcohol and water-soluble constituents. For example, to fully extract Cayenne's pungent resins and orange-red pigments require at least 80% alcohol is required. A Cayenne extract made with a lower amount of alcohol will contain smaller amounts of Cayenne's resins and pigments, and therefore will be of lower quality than the higher alcohol extract. The amount of alcohol you consume in a dose of liquid extract is actually very small. For example, taking 30 drops of Echinacea liquid extract (alcohol content of 45% to 50%) amounts to consuming 1/65th of a can of beer or 1/85th of an 8-ounce glass of wine. Also, if you mix those 30 drops of Echinacea liquid extract into 2 ounces of water, that mixture would contain only 0.59% alcohol. Can I evaporate away the alcohol in liquid herbal extracts by mixing the extract drops into hot water? A small amount of the alcohol can be removed this way but most of it will stay intimately mixed with the hot water and will remain so even if the water is boiled. That's because alcohol and water are extremely difficult to separate once they have been mixed. While adding extracts to hot water will not eliminate their alcohol, it can, in some cases, actually damage the extract. Many extracts are heat stable (e.g., Goldenseal) and adding them to hot water does no harm. However, other extracts are damaged by heat (e.g., Valerian) and can be weakened by adding them to hot water. Also, essential oils found in certain extracts (e.g., Lemon Balm, Chamomile) will be at least partially vaporized by hot water. Here you are left with a compromised extract, but the alcohol remains. If an extract is directed to be taken hot to increase its diaphoretic (sweat-inducing) action, it should be added to hot water that is not too hot to drink.