A tincture is an alcohol-based botanical extract, commonly made with a mixture of ethanol and water. Plant material is left in contact with the liquid before it is strained or pressed.
What alcohol and water gather
Water helps recover water-compatible constituents, while ethanol extends the extraction toward less water-soluble materials. Together they can gather a range of phenolic compounds, aromatic constituents and portions of a plant’s resinous chemistry.
Changing their proportions changes the extraction. Rosemary research, for example, has compared alcohol-and-water mixtures for recovering rosmarinic acid and carnosic acid, constituents with different chemical properties.[1]
The alcohol percentage is therefore part of the preparation’s identity. Plant-to-liquid proportions also help describe how a tincture was made.
Tinctures in aromatic work
A tincture can carry the aroma, color and other extracted qualities of a botanical material into an alcohol-based preparation.
It differs from a perfume assembled by dissolving essential oils, absolutes and other aromatic ingredients into alcohol. A tincture describes an extraction; a perfume describes a finished composition.
Related entries: Extraction & solubility; Oil infusions; Absolutes; Resinoids.
