That's perfectly normal for Cinnamon tincture, and there is no need to dilute that gooey cinnamon-y goodness :) If the cinnamon tinctures you have purchased in the past were not gooey, then there was something wrong with THEM, and they were processed incorrectly. You see this a lot with Echinacea tinctures - store bought are perfectly transparent and liquid, home-made have a layer of thick white stuff at the bottom (inulin - good stuff!). When people make Echinacea tincture for the first time, they typically freak out and wonder what they did wrong and why that white stuff is there. Businesses typically strain out the inulin so as to not gross out customers, so 'store bought' never should equate with 'the standard we should strive for'

So you wanna make pepper extract? HereÂs how. WhatÂs really gonna happen will be the extraction of capsaicin from your hot peppers with an organic solvent. Capsaicin is an oleoresin found in many plants, principally in peppers, or "capsicums". The hotter the pepper, the more capsaicin present. To separate the capsaicin (the hot stuff) from the pepper (the other stuff), you can use a very common and relatively inexpensive organic solvent known as ethanol, a.k.a. pure grain alcohol, or even plain old vodka. The method I use is very simple and very effective. First I get a quantity of dried peppers of choice (I use habaneras because I like their taste), and grind them coarsely. I place the ground peppers in a sealable jar and add enough grain alcohol to just cover. I put the lid securely on the jar and give it a good shake, and put it in the fridge. Every time I think about it, I give the jar another good shake. After 3 or 4 days, I set up another sealable jar with a funnel. Inside the funnel I place a coffee filter. Then I pour the peppers that have been soaking in the alcohol into the filter, and let them drain completely. I seal the second jar containing the pepper extract and alcohol and put it in the fridge. Then I return the drained ground peppers to the first jar, cover again with alcohol, seal, shake and return to the fridge remembering to shake occasionally for another 3 or 4 days. Then I repeat the filtering process, reserving the filtered extract in the second jar as before. To be on the safe side, I flush the now spent ground peppers down the toilet and place their jar in the trash. The filtered alcohol contains a considerable amount of capsaicin and you can taste it. But, PLEASE do it this way until youÂre sure you can handle the heat!!!! Dip the mere tip of a toothpick into the liquid. Shake it off. And only then, place the mere tip of the toothpick to your tongue. DONÂT LICK IT !!!!! Do this only once, because it may take several seconds for you to realize the heat. If it is too hot , DONÂT DRINK WATER! Drink milk, eat some cheese or even eat some sugar. BUT, DONÂT DRINK WATER! Pour the strained liquid into something like a glass pie pan, cover with cheese cloth, and set in a dark place to allow the alcohol to evaporate. After the alcohol evaporates, you will be left with capsaicin oil. This is VERY, VERY HOT STUFF! ItÂs dangerous if misused.

Lynn I am wondering if you use the entire gallon of echinacea tincture you make each year!! (that's a lot!) I also recommend beyond the books in looking locally to see if there's an herbalist who is giving classes...we have an excellent person doing this in my area and that has has been incredibly helpful for me. I would guess everyone has their own basic ways...the herbalist I have had classes from insists that the only way to make a tincture that is of a known strength is to measure the ingredients. To use ratios and to chop the herbs first , measuring them before you then measure the alcohol. That way you will always have the same strength of each herb you tincture....as opposed to the simplers method of stuffing a jar full and then pouring in alcohol... where for fluffier plant parts you will end up with less plant and more alcohol...and a less strong tincture...or for easily stacked plant parts you could well end up with too strong a tincture.

Each herb is a little different in that regard. Depends on the relative concentrations of alcohol-soluble compounds and water-soluble compounds in it. There are some good books on the subject, but in the end, most recommend using 50/50 to start, unless you know that a plant contains only one or the other, or if you're specifically trying to get only one class of compounds, and not the other. For example, Astragalus root's active compounds are polysaccharides, which are strictly water-soluble. In that case, you'd want to produce a water decoction, and add the ethanol to the finished product as a preservative (at least 24% ethanol). Catnip and peppermint's active compounds on the other hand are primarily alkaloids and terpenes, which are only soluble in alcohol, so no point in tossing water in there, unless you only have, say, 100-proof vodka as your menstruum source. In such a case, the water won't *harm* the extraction process; it just won't help it. Therefore, because the plants you mention have a mixture of water- and alcohol-soluble compounds (passionflower provides flavanoids and glycosides, both of which are water-soluble), I would recommend the 50/50 mixture of ethanol and water. That is, use 100-proof vodka if you have it, or 80-proof if you don't. Good luck, and let us know how you make out! -BH