Pros and Cons: Bulk, granule powder, tincture or patent pills

We have a lot of herbs here at The Vital Compass.  Maybe this is stating the obvious, but that's what most people say when they walk in for the first time.  The walls lined with dried bulk herbs might be the most impressive thing, visually, but can be overwhelming, too.

Most can't imagine how these dried and foreign looking things get turned into actually digestible medicine, and that's a good question!  It's not as hard as it might seem, and we'll go into that in a bit, but that's why we also carry powders, tinctures and patent pills of the same herbs.  This way, everyone can find something that works for them.  After all, if herbal medicine is to be effective, we have to be able to take it!

Why don't we take an illuminating look at the pros and cons of bulk herbs, granule powders, tinctures and patent pills.  After all, if you know your options, you can make better decisions for yourself and your health.


Bulk Herbs:  Putting it simply, these are the cut and dried raw herbs in their most whole forms.  Without pulling it from the ground yourself, this is the most unadulterated plant medicine you will find.  Some of the herbs have special processing needs.   For example, some need to be steamed before they are dried to reduce their toxicity.  Some are soaked in wine or vinegar and then dried to enhance their effects.  Some are cut particular ways, dried certain ways, or even picked at particular times of the day or season to get the most potent medicine possible from the plant.  So, how do you take a dried leaf, root, twig or flower and turn it into medicine?  Well, the most common way is to decoct it, or boil it in water until the medicinal properties have been extracted.  Do you remember way back to high school science class and learning that water was the universal solvent?  Here's that principle in action!  Adding water and heat breaks down the plant parts enough to dissolve them into the water and make a "Tang" as we say in Chinese medicine, soup or tea.

What we do here is make you packages of a formula--specific groupings of herbs in specific amounts--to boil and make yourself a tea for one or several days.  There's an example of this in the photo to the left.  Here you see what will be two "bags" or packages of herbs (wrapped separately) to be boiled one day at a time to make tea.  Sometimes herbs have specific cooking instructions including cooking for more or less time than the other herbs, or dissolving after the rest of the herbs have been cooked.  These herbs will be kept separate and labelled so you know exactly what to do.  It takes a bit of work, but you get the most concentrated, least processed and most potent medicine this way.  

Granule herbs:  These herbs have been cooked for you.  They are boiled to a concentrate, which is usually 5:1.  This means that 1 gram of granulated herbs equals 5 grams of bulk, raw herbs.  Once they are boiled, they are sprayed onto an excipient, usually cornstarch.  The herbs in the formula are combined as powders, and taken as a tea as well.  A one gram scoop comes with the bottle of powder, and you may be prescribed to take anywhere from one gram a day up to 20 depending on the action of the formula, your weight, and your practitioners experience.  Granulated herbs are pretty strong, but because they have been previously cooked and have been stored for a while, they are generally not as potent as bulk herbs.  This doesn't mean you won't get great results!  They have the advantage of being much, much easier to prepare--just scoop and serve!  Sometimes, this convenience means the difference between taking your herbs in a day and not and the herbs won't work unless you take them!

Tinctures: Another good solvent is alcohol, and this is what a tincture usually is:  herbs soaked in grain alcohol for a period of time, strained and pressed.  Sometimes a tincture contains herbs boiled in water plus herbs soaked in alcohol, because sometimes there's an herb that's known to dissolve better in water.  Sometimes you can have a tincture that uses glycerin as a solvent, and that's technically known as a glycerinate though often people call them tinctures.  These are generally very concentrated doses of the herb, anywhere from 5:1 to 10:1, depending on the method used to process them.  One of the benefits to a tincture is that it usually doesn't taste strongly of anything except the alcohol, though very bitter herbs tend to have their flavors come through!  A lot of people find them much easier to take than a tea because generally less liquid needs to be consumed at a time.  Because alcohol is inherently a blood and energy moving substance, tinctures tend to work great with herbs and formulas designed to move blood and energy (or qi).  Again, these are less strong than the bulk herbs boiled in water, but better than not taking your herbs at all!  They work well, especially used liberally!



Patent pills:  Patents, teapills, pills, capsules or tablets are there for us when we need them!  For those of us who just can't take tasting the herbs, or are on the go so much that any other format is unrealistic, patents are a great way to take herbs.  They are also most useful for long term use, when taking a little bit of a formula for a long time will have a better effect than taking a more concentrated dose all at once.  You know, sometimes it's best to chip away at a project a little bit at a time rather than all at once, right?  Remember that pile of ____ in your closet you've been meaning to organize?  It's like organizing that pile one thing at a time for days on end until it's gone.  There's no doubt about it, they're convenient!  Generally, they are a weaker format than those discussed above, but can be very useful! 
You may have noticed there are many types of manufactured patents!  The little round pills that look a lot like bee-bees are called tea pills.  They are made small to be easily digestible and easy to dose depending on weight.  Tablets are generally compressed herbs and are often oblong.  Sometimes they are coated for easy swallowing.  Capsules are powdered herbs that are placed in gelatin or non gelatin pill shaped "containers".  The gelatin or other encapsulating material dissolves in your stomach, releasing the herbs.  Sometimes granulated herbs (above) are placed into these capsules for easy swallowing, but often the number of capsules you'd need to take to get one dose is excessive, so that's best left as a tea.  

So, what's the best way to take my herbs??!!:  Well, I'm sure you've noticed there are a lot of factors involved!  Talk to your practitioner about what might be best for your body in the situation you're in right now.  Sometimes you can start by cooking your own bulk herbs to initiate a considerable change and in a few weeks end up taking a patent pill over the long term for maintenance.  Sometimes a tincture will be just right from the start.  It all depends on who you are, what herbs you need, how urgent the change needs to be and how much time you have to make that change happen.  For example, someone with a cold will need herbs that will be most available and absorb-able so they can be taken often--perhaps a tincture--while someone with chronic low back pain and anxiety will need something that can be taken, easily, over a long period of time to create lasting change--maybe a capsule or granule powder.  A woman seeking herbs to enhance fertility will likely want the most potent herbs possible--probably bulk teas-- as the change needed is a large one and is achievable over a measurable amount of time.  So, you see, it's very individualized!  

We hope this clarifies some of the differences in the herbal formats available to you.  If you have any questions, never hesitate to ask by calling or emailing! We are available at 971-373-8378 or info@thevitalcompass.com

Happy herb taking!