Description
Make an anti-viral olive leaf tincture with local olive leaves for your next cold and flu season.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 1/2 cups of olive leaves, dried
- 2 cups of vodka (at least 40% alcohol)
- Glass jar with tight fitting lid
- Cloth or sieve to strain the tincture
Instructions
- While olives are a naturally dry plant, the leaves should be washed to get rid of dust and allowed to dry overnight after washing. This insures that there is no added dust, insects, or lingering residues in your tincture.
- Once the leaves have been washed and dried overnight, you can make the tincture.
Fill a pint or quart, wide-mouth jar with leaves. If you have a lot of olive leaves you can strip them from the stem, I left my olive leaves on the stem since I only had a few. - Once the jar is comfortably full, pour vodka or glycerine over the leaves to cover. Vodka used in tinctures should be at least 40% alcohol. For a specific measurement, a 1:5 ratio can be used. That is, one part dried olive leaf by weight to five parts alcohol by volume. I simply filled the jar half full of olive leaves and covered the leaves with vodka.
- Store your jar of steeping olive leaves in a dark cupboard or other place away from direct sunlight. Shake nightly, or as often as you remember to. Let the tincture steep for 4 to 6 weeks.
- After 4 to 6 weeks you can strain the olive leaves out of your tincture and transfer the green toned vodka tincture to a storage container or jar. The olive leaves are very dry, and absorb very little of the alcohol. Strain using a stainless steel mesh strainer, or just pour off the vodka through a standard tea strainer and shake off the leaves by hand. You do not need to press out the tincture from the leaves due to how dry the leaves are.
- If you inadvertently forget about your steeping elixir, there is no problem. Just strain it when you do remember it, after 4 to 6 weeks.
- Use a dark colored amber bottle for storage, or if you only have clear glass, store the tincture in a dark cupboard.
Notes
Dosages: 1 to 2 ml of tincture up to 3 times a day. This can be increased if you are fighting a virus or infection, up to 5ml, 2 or 3 times a day.
