Any idea on the best way to extract the benefits from the red belted polypore?
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You must live near a hemlock grove.
Generally, mushrooms are a little more difficult process than medicinal plants.
It’s a three step process.
Using fresh mushrooms.
First, slice the mushroom into strips. The smaller the better. Place strips in a jar and cover with straight grain alcohol. I use an organic grain alcohol that gets bootlegged to me, but ever clear works. MA has some screwy laws regarding grain alcohol so you may need to drive closer to the border to get it.
Cover the mushroom slices with the alcohol and let it sit for 24 hours.
Strain and put the alcohol aside.
Second step:
Take the marc or alcohol soaked mushroom pieces and decoct (simmer) them in water for 24 hours. The idea is to end up with the same amount of water decoction as alcohol. Keep simmering until they’re equal but at least 24 hours.
Step three:
Mix the alcohol, water, and marc into one jar, cover and let it sit for two weeks, gently shaking it every day. Strain and bottle. It’s now ready to use.
A word on alcohol.
Some medicine is easy to make. Pine needle tea couldn’t get simpler. Pour hot water over pine needles and let it sit for fifteen minutes. Drink.
Different solvents work differently and sometimes (like above) we use more than one. Some basic solvents are; water, alcohol, glycerin, heat, and even sugar.
When using alcohol, it is important to consider the water content of the herb. If you’re using dry material, you may need to add water to alcohol so it won’t destroy the compounds you’re looking to extract.
Mushrooms are generally processed wet. Alcohol will extract water as well as the compounds. Even using 190 proof grain alcohol in the above example will result in a final mixture about 120 proof.
This is important for a few reasons, but most importantly because it alters the efficacy of your extractions. We use grain alcohol because it’s as close to pure alcohol (200 proof) as we can get and can be made any proof dependent upon the water content of the herbs and additional water added.
Medicine making is as much an art as science. I believe a lot of the studies done on herbs often neglect this point. For example, some stuff needs to be processed in the field. Waiting to process it until you get home loses most of the medical benefits.
Comparing two medicines made from the same plant but processed differently will result in inconclusive results and is largely the reason information on herbs is all over the place. Pharmacy used to include medicine making. Not anymore.
ETA: Hi ATF and Maura, I’m joking about the bootlegging, please stand down.