RE: Honey Pills

[Guest guest]

Suzanne, I agree the decoction are best.

The advantage to honey pills is for convenience and where the liquid

decoction would not be feasible. i.e. pets, small children and sometimes in

more critical conditions. As well as when traveling or otherwise unable to

make a decoction or fresh tea.

 

Tinctures or extracts take time and as such are not readily available

ESPECIALLY when one wishes to modify the herbs (as often is the case with

Chinese Herbal Formulas)

 

Honey pills can be made very quickly, be made dose specific and customized

to fit the individual - as opposed to something that is taken off the shelf

and created to treat a broad range of individuals (and symptoms) they

contain fillers, binders and phramecicals for preservative and who knows

what.

 

(Simply) combine the herbs with honey and water to form a dough, roll out

and cut into pills.

Machines do a much better job but the basic idea is from the home kitchen

where folk remedies all came from.

 

Ed Kasper L.Ac., Acupuncturist & Medicinal Herbalist

 

 

 

 

Wed, 2 Apr 2003 18:49:44 -0800 (PST)

Suzanne Nottmeier <suziesgoats

Re: RE: Honey Pills

 

 

Ed,

I'm no expert, but your logic sounds right to me... or at least that is what

would make sense... however, i would think the decoction would be more

potent, work faster, etc.... the same as a tincture is better than a

capsule...

Suzi

" edkasper@pacbell " <edkasper wrote:Can someone suggest a rule

of thumb for making honey pills.

 

For example if one was prescribed a herbal formula, say 3 bags for 3 days

and wanted to convert that to honey pills would the rationale go like this

....grind all the herbs used to make 3 bags, mix with honey, shape into

pills divide into dosages for 3 days.

 

Could a similar affect as traditionally prepared decoction be expected?

 

 

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[Guest guest]

herbal remedies , " edkasper@p... "

<edkasper@p...> wrote:

> Can someone suggest a rule of thumb for making honey pills.

>

> For example if one was prescribed a herbal formula, say 3 bags for

3 days

> and wanted to convert that to honey pills would the rationale go

like this

> ...grind all the herbs used to make 3 bags, mix with honey, shape

into

> pills divide into dosages for 3 days.

>

> Could a similar affect as traditionally prepared decoction be

expected?

 

 

Ed,

 

It was not completely clear from your post but I am assuming that in

your example you are refering to 3 bags to be taken over three days

as infusions/decoctions and not ingested as whole herbs. If this is

so then you may want to rethink the logic of ingesting an equal

amount as you will be increasing your dose considerably. When you

infuse or decoct a portion (up to or exceeding 25%) of the tea

remains in the herbs. Also a tea is not as complete an extraction as

takes place the digestive system (extractions vs whole herb

consumption - that is yet another debate). For example the average

dose of dry herb in capsule form is 2 " 00 " capsules 3X a day. I

weighed a number of powdered herbs and the heaviest I found came in

at 1 gram per capsule, many were as little as 1/2 gram. This would

give you a maximum average dose of 6 grams a day to be ingested. The

same herbs listed for teas were recommended at 9 - 15 grams a day.

The 3-5 gram per cup average dose appears to be conservative as

Micheal Tierra (His book, The Way of Herbs, gives good comparrisons)

suggest the average medicinal tea would use 28 grams in 1 pint of

water yielding three 1/2 cup doses to be consumed in one day. At a

one to one ratio, this would translate to 9capsules 3X a day. My

suggestion would be to look up each individual herb and see what the

recommended capsule dose would be. Knowing the weights or using

capsules to go by volume you would get closer in your dosing when you

make your pills. My personal conclusion is that your weight/volumes

for oral consumption would AVERAGE about 1/2 the amount that you

would infuse/decoct in a tea.

 

Bfeest regards,

Richard