There’s something undeniably charming about the old-school folk method of herbal extraction — toss a handful of fresh plant material into a jar, cover it with alcohol, shake it on the full moon, strain it when it “feels ready,” and call it medicine. There’s lineage in that. There’s intuition in that. There’s ancestral knowing in that.
While the folk method has heart, it doesn’t have… numbers.
And for me — for the way I craft medicine, for the way I want to dose, and for the way I want you to be able to trust what you’re taking — numbers matter.
Why the Folk Method Doesn’t Work for Me
Recently at one of my market booths, someone told me that someone had given them a mason jar full of passionflower floating in alcohol, still loaded with plant material, and completely unlabeled. No ratio. No percentages. No dates. No nothing.
They looked at me and asked one simple question:
“How do I dose it?”
And I couldn’t tell them.
Not because passionflower is mysterious, or dangerous, or impossible to work with…
but because without knowing the plant-to-menstruum ratio, the percent alcohol, or even what part of the plant was used, there was absolutely no way to calculate potency.
That’s the Achilles heel of the folk method:
If you don’t know what went in, you can’t know what’s coming out.
The Mathematical (Clinical) Method: Precision Matters
When I craft a tincture, I’m not guessing.
I’m weighing.
I’m measuring.
I’m applying math so you get something consistent, potent, and dose-able.
The clinical method follows simple numbers:
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You measure the herb (by weight).
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You calculate the menstruum (by volume).
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You determine the solvent strength to extract certain phytochemistry (alcohol %, water %, etc.).
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You create a known ratio, like 1:5 or 1:2, and track it.
Suddenly, your tincture isn’t a mystery potion... it’s a measurable extract.
This means when you want to take an herbal dose, you’re not relying on ✨vibes✨ or guesswork. You know that:
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A 1:5 tincture is weaker per dropper than
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A 1:2 tincture, which is more concentrated.
And because you know the ratio, you can calculate each dose in milligrams by knowing exactly how much herb went in and how much solvent extracted it.
How to Calculate the Strength (mg per mL) of Your Tincture
This is the part most people never learn, so let’s break it down simply.
A tincture ratio is expressed like:
1:5 (1 part herb : 5 parts menstruum)
For simple math, let’s say you used:
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100 g herb
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500 mL menstruum
That makes a 1:5 tincture.
Formula to calculate mg of herb per 1 mL of tincture:
So for a 1:5:
So:
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1 mL ≈ 200 mg herb equivalent
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2 mL ≈ 400 mg
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3 mL ≈ 600 mg
...And, so forth. You can now actually dose with confidence. (Use this formula to calculate exactly the mg of herbal medicine in your Simples. )
This changes everything.
You can compare tinctures.
You can calculate adult doses.
You can calculate children’s doses.
You can determine whether you're under-dosing or overdosing.
And you can’t do any of this with a folk tincture.
Dosing Adults Accurately
When you know your ratio, you can confidently say something like:
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“Take 2–3 mL of a 1:5 tincture.”
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Or: “Take 1 mL of a 1:2 tincture.”
You can match the dose to the strength, instead of assuming all tinctures are created equal. (They’re very much not.)
A folk tincture?
You can’t say any of this, because you don’t know what you’re working with.
Dosing Kids: Clark’s Rule
When dosing children — and let me be clear, this is general educational information, not medical advice — Clark’s Rule is one way to calculate a child-appropriate dose based on weight, not age.
Clark’s Rule:
child’s dose = (weight of child in pounds ÷ 150) × adult dose
So if an adult dose is 1 mL and the child weighs 50 lbs:
50 ÷ 150 = 0.33
Child dose ≈ 0.33 mL
But again:
This only works if you know the actual potency of the tincture.
You cannot apply Clark’s Rule to a folk-method extract because you don’t know what the “adult dose” even is.
Quality, Consistency, and Trust
This is why in my apothecary, I don’t rely on guesswork.
Not with your wellness.
Not with my formulations.
Not with the plants I love.
I use the mathematical tincture method because it gives you:
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Consistency
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Potency
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Safety
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True, measurable dosage
It gives me confidence in what I craft, and it gives you confidence in what you take.
And if someone hands you a mason jar full of mystery-herb-slurry?
Politely hand it back and ask them what the ratio is.
If they can’t tell you… well, that is your answer.