Powdered Herbs Can Slow Dit Da Jow Extraction

Every so often a customer will want to grind down the herbs but we have found that powdered herbs can slow Dit Da Jow Extraction. Using a herb grinder does a great job in getting your herbs into a powder and it is needed for certain processes like encapsulation or certain teas. But grinding down herbs to a powder can slow down the extraction process especially if the Dit Da Jow kit has resinous herbs like Myrrh and Frankincense. These types of herbs become very gummy when mixed with alcohol.

Gummy Consistency

When these and other similar herbs are mixed together with non-resinous herbs like Safflower it creates a gummy consistency for the whole batch of herbs being extracted.  This consistency then prevents a good extraction as all the herbs become somewhat bonded together not allowing alcohol to completely pull out the constituents with out a lot of effort because the herbs totally clump together and settle to the bottom of the jar.

Notice the herbs have settled to the bottom and are clumped together in a gummy consistency.

A Whole Lot Of Shaken

The only way to achieve a good extraction with powdered herbs is to really shake your jar almost violently to first remove the herbs from the bottom of the jar and second so they can be mixed and macerated properly by the alcohol. But in some cases this is very hard to do depending on the size and weight of your jar your shaking. In laboratories where herbs are powdered down for scientific purposes they do not shake the test tube they use a centrifuge that spins at around 8-10 thousand RPM to help with the extraction and we are only talking about 5-10 grams in size versus 500 gram plus for a Dit Da Jow kit.

This small jar was shaken very hard for a few minutes and when finished the herbs just clumped together again at the bottom of the jar.

Dit Da Jow Becomes Sludge

When you get into larger kits with lots of resinous herbs the Dit Da Jow becomes almost like sludge very thick and hard to move which prevents a complete maceration.

Notice the herbs at the bottom, all clumped up and like sludge.

So the bottom line is to avoid if possible an all powdered Dit Da Jow liniment kit as powdered herbs can slow Dit Da Jow extraction. If you are working with an all powdered kit a couple of things you can try to help with extraction is use a variation of the double or triple maceration techniques. I must emphasize that I said an ALL powdered kit, there are some herbs that come powdered naturally like Pu Huang and cannot be avoided plus some herbs need to be ground down. So having a few powdered herbs is not an issue but having 17-18 herbs can be.

Shaking your jar more often is also required so the herbs are moving often allowing the cellular walls to absorb alcohol and extract all the constituents. Remember we are dealing with a variety of bio-active principals, like polyphenols, flavenoids, tannins and in some cases phenolic compounds. So a lot of movement especially during the first 3-4 weeks is needed to acquire a good well balanced liniment.

Hi Speed Grinders Can Diminish Herbal Constituents

Hi speed herb grinders can generate a lot of heat when grinding that it can harm some of the herbal properties in the herbs needed for healing. If you ever felt a grinder during its operation it can get very hot. If you are doing the grinding yourself then you have some control over this as you can grind in very short spurts. But unfortunately if you are purchasing this from a company they usually grind in large batches for extended periods of time which is something we would like to avoid. Another aspect to grinding at high speed is the loss of some of the herbs in the air when the grinder is opened as ground down herb dust is released into the air. If I ever need to use a grinder I will use short spurts and not open the grinder until I feel the dust has settled. I hope this article was helpful and you can see how Powdered Herbs Can Slow Dit Da Jow Extraction, if you have any questions or comments please use the form below.