How to Make a Wild Cherry Tincture

The bark from the wild cherry tree is useful in many applications from furniture making to medicine making. As a medicine, it treats various types of illnesses associated with cough such as bronchitis, whooping cough and catarrh. It also supports healthy digestion and bowel function, and has sedative effects on the nervous system. Wild cherry is found in some commercial cough medicines, however a tincture made from fresh wild cherry bark is even more effective.

Things You'll Need

• Wild cherry bark
• Choice of solvent: alcohol, apple cider vinegar or vegetable glycerine
• Glass Jar
• Strainer
• Dark glass bottle

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Instructions

Prepare the Wild Cherry Bark

• 1

  Gather bark from a wild cherry tree. Fresh bark is best but high quality dried bark will suffice if fresh bark is unavailable. Peel off the first layer of bark and use the inner layers for your wild cherry tincture. Avoid damaging the beautiful wild cherry tree by collecting tree limbs that have fallen off after a storm and using the bark from the limbs.

• 2

  Grind the wild cherry bark into a powder using a coffee or spice grinder. If you don't have a grinder, chop the bark as finely as you can. The bark is fairly soft and easy to chop.

• 3

  Fill a 4 to 8 ounce clean, dry glass jar with the wild cherry bark powder. The jar must have a tight-fitting lid to ensure no air gets inside.

Choose the Solvent

• 4

  Choose the solvent, or menstruum, you would like to extract the wild cherry's medicinal properties with. Alcohol is the superior choice because it creates the strongest medicine. Use 80 to 100 proof high-quality vodka, gin or brandy.

• 5

  Get additional benefits by using apple cider vinegar to extract the wild cherry bark. Tinctures made with apple cider vinegar have the nutritional benefits of the apples that the vinegar is made from as well as the acids and enzymes produced from the fermentation process.

• 6

  Use 100 percent vegetable glycerin as the menstruum of choice for children or people who react adversely to alcohol. It's sweet taste is more palatable than alcohol or vinegar-based tinctures. It has little to no effect on blood sugar and insulin and contains few calories.

Make the Tincture

• 7

  Add the choice solvent to the glass jar containing the wild cherry bark powder. If using apple cider vinegar, slightly warm it in the microwave before adding it to the herb. Dilute tinctures made with vegetable glycerin with equal parts of filtered or distilled water. Fill the jar to the brim so that all of the wild cherry bark is submerged in the menstruum.

• 8

  Cover the top of the jar with wax paper and cap the jar tightly. No air should seep into the tincture because air degrades the medicine.

• 9

  Shake the wild cherry tincture thoroughly for at least 60 seconds and place it in a warm location for 4 to 6 weeks. Shake the tincture vigorously every day to prevent the wild cherry bark from becoming tightly packed at the bottom.

• 10

  Strain the wild cherry bark herb from the menstruum after 4 to 6 weeks. The longer the tincture macerates -- the stronger it will be. Pour the potent medicine into a dark glass bottle and compost the remaining herb.

• 11

  Store the tincture in a cool, dark place. If the tincture is made with vegetable glycerin, store in the refrigerator to prolong freshness. Tinctures stay fresh for up to one year.