Medicinal Syrups & Decoctions
MEDICINAL SYRUPS AND DECOCTIONS:
Taking a proactive approach to your family's health can be both simple and cost-effective. By creating flavorful herbal syrups or decoctions with basic instructions, you can maximize the benefits of any herbs in your home apothecary and craft tasty, homemade medicinal remedies right in your own kitchen.
HOW TO MAKE A MEDICINAL SYRUP
(for use with leaves & flowers)
Making an herbal syrup is almost as easy as making a simple syrup, which is just hot water and sugar. The extra steps will be to bring the water to a boil and then let the herbs steep or infuse into the water for a longer time frame so we can extract more of the medicinal benefits out of the herb. After we let the herbs steep for the specified amount of time, we will strain out the herbs and add honey!! It is literally that simple.
A medicinal syrup can be thought of as a sweet, herbal concentrate that can be used in all sorts of tasty ways. Try adding it to your favorite tea, hot or iced coffee, or sparkling water for an Italian soda. You can also mix it with lemon or lime and water for a refreshing ade, stir it into oatmeal or drizzle it over pancakes. Use the syrup as a mixer for mocktails and cocktails, or simply take a spoonful on its own with a bit of water.
Ratio for herb to water is ¼ cup herb to 1 cup of water (use more herbs if you would like it stronger in flavor). These instructions are for a medicinal syrup made with leaves and flowers that just need a gentle extraction of their medicinal benefits by adding boiling water. If you are working with roots, barks, or berries, then follow the instructions below for a decoction.
INSTRUCTION FOR MEDICINAL SYRUP
ITEMS NEEDED: stainless steel sauce pan with fitted lid, wooden spoon, measuring cup, strainer, clean jar
-bring 1 cup of water to a boil and immediately remove from heat
-add ¼ cup of herb to the pan, stir, and cover with a tight fitting lid; let sit for 45 minutes
-strain infusion into a measuring cup, ensuring there is 1 cup of infused liquid (see notes below)
-add ½ - 1 cup of honey to the infused liquid and stir until dissolved (substitute sugar, see notes below).
Keep Refrigerated. Use Within 4-6 weeks.
HOW TO MAKE A MEDICINAL DECOCTION
(for use with hardier herbs parts like roots, barks, and berries)
A medicinal decoction is when we are taking hardier parts of the plants, such as the roots, barks and berries and we add a longer cook time to help extract the medicinal benefits that need a little extra effort to get out. This will be similar to the recipe above for the medicinal syrup, but we will let the herbs lightly simmer in the water before letting them steep for the specified amount of time, strain off the herb, and add the honey. See? Pretty easy! Since a decoction consists of giving the herbs a little simmer, it is best for you to not include the more delicate leaves and flowers when making a decoction. However, sometimes the leaves and flowers are preblended with roots and berries, so if you have a prepared mix like this, then when there are 20 minutes left in the steep time, add some more of the herbal mix to the pot and infuse.
A medicinal decoction can be thought of as a sweet herbal concentrate and sometimes certain barks and roots can add a bitter flavor. Ideas for how to use your medicinal syrup daily are as a tea or add to your favorite tea, add to hot or iced coffee, add sparkling water for an Italian soda, add lemon or lime and water for a refreshing Ade, add to oatmeal or topped on pancakes, use as your favorite mocktail/cocktail mixer, take by the spoonful, or just add water.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR MEDICINAL DECOCTION
ITEMS NEEDED: stainless steel sauce pan with fitted lid, wooden spoon, measuring cup, strainer, clean jar
-bring 1 cup of water to a boil, turn to lowest heat setting
-add ¼ cup of herb to the pan, stir, and cover with a tight fitting lid
-let simmer for 20-30 minutes (you DO NOT want a vigorous boil) then remove from heat and keep lid on, let herbs steep and infuse in the water for a minimum of 1 hour
-strain infusion into a measuring cup, ensuring there is 1 cup of infused liquid (see notes below)
-add ½ - 1 cup of honey to the infused liquid and stir until dissolved, substitute sugar (see notes below).
Keep Refrigerated. Use Within 4-6 weeks.
NOTES:
-A few thoughts to have in mind when making any syrup is to understand that dry herbs will absorb a little bit of your water. If you are planning on following an exact recipe, then you will have to add a little water back into your final product, but this is easy! Simply add some fresh water back into the just-steeped herb mix, give it a stir, and strain it out into your infused liquid. You may find that after letting the herbs sit for upwards of 45 minutes or more, that the water gets too cold to melt the honey or sugar, simply strain the water and add back to a clean pan, turn on the heat and get the liquid hot again and then you would add the sugar. If you add the sugar and water together, you may find yourself with a thicker consistency of syrup than you want.
-Another note is that we are going to suggest honey for the syrup recipe, this is because there are numerous benefits to this liquid gold, such as it being an anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antimicrobial, etc, in addition to its preserving qualities. Honey is also very sweet and some find that a 1:1 ratio (equal parts honey to water) is far too sweet, so you can blend as low as 1:2 ratio (1 part honey to 2 parts water) which would look like adding ½ cup honey to 1 cup water. However, for a cleaner flavor, you can substitute organic sugar if you are making a beverage blend or mocktail/cocktail syrup in a 1:1 ratio (equal parts sugar to water).