What to do with the leftovers after tincturing

When we’re making tinctures, after the marc (thats the plant material) has had a good squeeze and pressing and as much of the alcohol has been squeezed out as possible, there’s alway a little something left behind. Maceration (soaking the marc in alcohol) isn’t a 100% efficient process.

So, how do we extract more of the plant’s goodness?

We can pull out more of the alcohol that has soaked deeply into the plant material and the water soluble chemicals that haven’t been dissolved into the water in the alcohol (remember that the alcohol is really an alcohol and water mix, 50% alcohol is also 50% water).

Doing this is easy!

All we need to do is to put the marc into a pot and cover it in water.

Then simmer the mix until half of the liquid has been evaporated away.

Let it cool, then strain and filter what’s left.  Then add this to the tincture you’ve already made.

That’s it. The alcohol percentage of the tincture will be reduced a little by the water, but more water soluble compounds will be added. Depending on the plant, this will vary, as some plants have more alcohol soluble compounds than others.

Once this is done, just add the leftover marc to your compost or worms.

Easy!