How to Take Tinctures (Under the Tongue, in Water and How Many Drops)

A tincture is a plant extracted into alcohol and sold in a small glass bottle with a dropper in the cap. If you have one on the bench and are wondering how to take tinctures, the short version is this: fill the dropper, put the liquid under your tongue, hold it there for 20 to 30 seconds and swallow. If the taste is too strong, stir it into water, tea or juice instead. Below is the full method, with Bear Root, Mara's osha root tincture, as the worked example the whole way through.

How to take tinctures, step by step

1. Read the label for the daily amount. Bear Root's is 1 to 2 droppers a day.
2. Unscrew the cap and squeeze the rubber bulb once while the glass tip sits in the liquid. Let go, and the dropper fills.
3. Take a sip of water first if you have just eaten or had coffee, so you start with a clean mouth.
4. Empty the dropper under your tongue, or into a glass of water, tea or juice.
5. If it is under the tongue, hold it there for 20 to 30 seconds, then swallow.
6. Rinse the glass tip if it touched your mouth, put the cap back on and stand the bottle upright.

That is the whole routine. Most first timers get stuck on two details, what counts as a dropper full and what to do about the taste, so those come next.

What a dropper full means

A dropper full is one squeeze and release of the bulb, whatever level the liquid reaches in the glass. On a 1 oz bottle, Herb Pharm explains that one squeeze pulls the liquid about a third to half way up the pipette, and its bulbs are made to draw the same amount every time, 0.7 ml.

Droppers vary from brand to brand, which is why labels count in droppers and leave the drop count out. Squeeze once, take what comes up, and you have the amount the label means.

How many drops of tincture is in a dropper?

WishGarden Herbs puts a standard dropper at about 1 ml, or roughly 30 drops. By that measure, half a dropper is around 15 drops and a quarter is 7 or 8. Counting single drops is slow and easy to lose track of, so use the bulb and take a half squeeze if you want less while you get used to the flavour.

Taking a tincture under the tongue

Taking a tincture sublingually means letting it sit under your tongue before you swallow. The tissue there is thin and full of small blood vessels. A StatPearls review of medication routes (Del Pozo, Patel and Das) describes the area under the tongue as having highly permeable mucosa with rapid access to the capillaries beneath it, and notes that what is taken up there drains into veins that bypass the liver's portal vein.

In practice, tip your head down a little, lift your tongue, empty the dropper into the space underneath and close your mouth. Hold it for 20 to 30 seconds, then swallow the rest. The alcohol will feel warm. With Bear Root you also get the root's flavour: earthy and warming, with a sharp, celery-like bite.

How to take tinctures in water, tea or juice

If holding a strong extract under your tongue is not for you, mix it. Herb Pharm's label directions use at least 2 oz (about 60 ml) of water or juice per squeeze, and you can use more if you want it milder. WishGarden notes that a tincture in a drink may be taken up a little more slowly than one held in the mouth, though you still get the full dropper.

Some ways people take Bear Root this way:

• Stirred into a mug of morning or evening tea, where the earthy taste sits well with ginger or lemon
• Added to a water bottle before a hike or a run
• Mixed into orange juice, which covers the celery note
• Blended into a smoothie with banana or berries

Morning or evening?

Either works. Labels give a daily amount, and when you take it is up to you. The easiest way to remember is to tie it to something you already do each day. If you take 2 droppers of Bear Root, you can take one with breakfast and one with an evening tea, or both at once in the morning. Pick a time and keep to it, and the bottle stops sitting forgotten at the back of the cupboard.

Bear Root, start to finish

Bear Root is Mara's tincture of osha root (Ligusticum porteri), a mountain plant of Northern Mexico. The Rarámuri brewed the root as a tea, and the Lakota call it mato tapejuta, bear medicine, from the story of bears digging it up and chewing it when they wake from hibernation. The plant's history, where it grows and how it is harvested are all in the complete guide to osha root.

Simple ingredients: premium quality extract. Take 1 to 2 droppers a day, held under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds then swallowed, or stirred into water, tea, juice or a smoothie. At that rate a 50 ml bottle lasts 30 to 50 days.

Bear Root – Osha Root Tincture

50 ml dropper bottle. Ligusticum porteri from the mountains of Northern Mexico.

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Where to keep the bottle

WishGarden's storage advice for tinctures is to keep them somewhere cool and dark, away from direct sunlight and heat, standing upright with the cap screwed on tight so the alcohol does not evaporate. A kitchen cupboard away from the stove is fine. A sunny windowsill or a hot car is not.

Light is the one to watch. Each time the cupboard opens, daylight reaches whatever is in the bottle. Dark amber glass is a step in the right direction. The gold standard is dark Miron glass, which keeps light off the extract, and it is what Mara uses for Bear Root. If you are still choosing a bottle, these label checks for picking an osha root tincture cover what else to look for.

Bear Root considerations

Contains alcohol. Not recommended during pregnancy. If you're nursing or taking medication, ask your doctor before using it.

Questions people ask

Do you swallow a tincture after holding it under your tongue?

Yes. Hold it for 20 to 30 seconds, then swallow what is left.

Can you put a tincture straight into water?

Yes. Squeeze one dropper into at least 2 oz of water, stir and drink. Tea, juice and smoothies work the same way.

Should I take a tincture with food?

Either way is fine. If you take it under the tongue, rinse your mouth with water first if you have just eaten so the liquid sits on a clean tongue.

How long does a bottle of tincture last?

It depends on the bottle size and the daily amount. A 50 ml bottle of Bear Root lasts 30 to 50 days at 1 to 2 droppers a day.