Herbal DIY Liquid (and no, not that "herb")

[utenzil]

I'm currently studying herbal medicine, and I've been researching traditional herbals for the past several months. The sorts of things I'm working with are often traditionally used as "tonifying" herbs. I am making my own extracts using vegetable glycerin and water, and also have done some experimenting with off the shelf non-alcoholic extracts. I will also be making ethanolic extracts but I want to see how these milder methods work first.

So once I make these extracts, I'll use them as flavoring/additive in a VG-based e-liquid: for the ones extracted with VG and water, that would basically consist of straining out the plant matter and thickening back up with more VG. None of these would be as toxic, addictive, stimulating or psychoactive as nicotine, and would tend to be solely calming rather than stimulative. I don't use nicotine, by the way: my main reason for getting into vaping (other than a strong geek attraction to the gadgetry) is to create these herbal e-liquids.

The reason I'm posting is to ask if anyone else has tried this, or plans to try it.

 

[Dvx67]

I haven't but it sounds very interesting. I would love to try something that has a calming effect.

 

[michaelsil1]

I would say that most of us use Nicotine and that's a powerful stimulant.

 

[SouthernBliss]

Having read around these boards at length I know I have seen where people posted they had used a couple. Scullcap and passifora maybe? That sound right? My brain could be fuzzy on those. And Nhaler sells an herbal mix for the lungs. Pretty sure I saw another herbal mix for sale as well but not a clue in the world where that was. Doing some searches should turn up some information for you on what people did in the past.

 

[Aheadatime]

I know a member here personally who experiments with herbal extractions and hes found so far that the potency just isn't there. It takes a long time to vape a tank full of juice, and a tank full of juice is usually only around 3mls. Generally, these herbs are taken in much much higher doses to get the desired effect such as relaxation regarding the valerian root, which just isn't possible with vaping so far. Perhaps you could try to squeeze as much material as possible into a confined space such as a 15ml glass bottle, soak in PGA, and leave for many weeks. Just a thought off the top of my head to get as much effect as possible, but so far it hasn't proven to be very feasible.

 

[BakuPeg]

Yes it has been discussed. Sadly the threads get shut down because one person mentions the wrong herb.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/not-advisable/402750-herbal-juice-extracts.html

 

[michaelsil1]

I can say this for sure they're not going to taste good! You might also want to consider finding some powerful low percentage flavors to add to your Herbals.

Unless your one of those people that like the Chinese Herbal Tea Concoctions.

 

[Kemosabe]

I can say this for sure they're not going to taste good! You might also want to consider finding some powerful low percentage flavors to add to your Herbals.

Unless your one of those people that like the Chinese Herbal Tea Concoctions.

true that. valarian root has a repulsive smell. i had to throw the bottle of valarian root i had away because it was stinking up my entire medicine cabinet (while sealed!) lol. i could not imagine vaping it. unless it was an april fools day trick or something lol.

 

[BakuPeg]

I would love to try to vape an extract of this..

Chamomile Herbal Tea | Celestial Seasonings

and this

Mint Magic® Herbal Tea | Celestial Seasonings

One of these days I'll try it.

A sleepytime has already been done..

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/e-liquid-recipes/391758-sleepytime-blend-1-a.html

 

[michaelsil1]

I would love to try to vape an extract of this..

Chamomile Herbal Tea | Celestial Seasonings

and this

Mint Magic® Herbal Tea | Celestial Seasonings

One of these days I'll try it.

It is very easy to extract Tea, cover the tea completely in 100% PG (or VG) shake every day and in eight days it should be ready. Someone said use at 10% I personally think try it at 5%


BTW

I'm extracting a couple of very nice Teas right now.

 

[SouthernBliss]

I am positive I have seen people talking about making extractions for vaping from teas like those. And I am also sure I've seen at least chamomile used by some vendor somewhere (lets face it I have looked at scores of pages in the last month and the where of things is really fuzzy by this point). I would however look long and hard at all the ingredients on more complex health teas before using one of those. I'd also consider sticking closer to herbs that are traditionally smoked or breathed in via steam rather than some of the other options.

I also noticed that one of the tea's listed above contains citrus and cinnamon. Both are a huge "on the fence" issue for me. Some people consider it a bad idea to inhale citrus oils and cinnamon oils. Citrus can be pretty harsh and if your doing an extraction the oil is what you would get. It is strong enough for serious cleaning when used in a fair percentage. That said, unless your using an artificial flavor for citrus your getting the oil from a purchased flavoring. I guess the real issue would be how much citrus oil we ever get and if there is even enough citrus in the tea to get all freaky about. Cinnamon is a similar case except some people have a reaction to cinnamon. For example if there is enough cinnamon present in the e-juice I get hives. My point is that you should be aware of what is in the tea before you extract it and be aware of possible "side effects" of the contents.

Based on the volume of people who have done black and green tea extractions I don't think anyone would put up red flags on those or coffee. There are also plenty of herbs like chamomile and the mints that have been used and I've read no read flags on any of those. I would expect that most herbs that have been smoked for traditional medicines have a fairly good track record of use. But as has been mentioned there will be flavor issues with some and extraction may not give you much of what ever benefit your seeking because of the small amount extracted. That would likely be cut by the fact that only a percentage of any flavoring is added to a mix. Not to say that if someone comes up with a good solid e-juice that could help me sleep or deal with stress I wouldn't be really excited to try it.

 

[purelyscientific]

Actually, some of them taste quite good. The only one that tasted bad was the damiana extract in that thread of mine.

Just a heads up- they are likely to move this thread to the "not advisable" part of ECF as they did mine.
ECF does not advocate people vape herbs for their medicinal properties. So don't talk about any health benefits they may or may not have or the thread will get shut down. Also, don't talk about illegal drugs.

 

[michaelsil1]

Actually, some of them taste quite good. The only one that tasted bad was the damiana extract in that thread of mine.

Just a heads up- they are likely to move this thread to the "not advisable" part of ECF as they did mine.
ECF does not advocate people vape herbs for their medicinal properties. So don't talk about any health benefits they may or may not have or the thread will get shut down. Also, don't talk about illegal drugs.

Okay, I won't mention my Lavender Extract for health benefits I'll only say what a wonderful taste.

 

[SouthernBliss]

Love the idea of lavender. Sadly it is one of the many florals out there that make me sneeze like a crazy person. Has anyone ever done any orange blossom? I know it can be bought in bulk dried and that Flavor art has a bitter orange blossom flavoring (Neroli). It is one of those smells from my childhood that I still really love.

Edit to add: What about rose hips. I really like the flavor of rose hips and they might be a nice addition flavor.

 

[utenzil]

Thanks for all the replies.

It is true that not everything is going to taste good even though it is "herbal". I have been using Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) non-alcoholic extract in VG has given me a pretty good flavor, it is kind of sweet. It is soothing, also, but it is true that the amount that would be ingested is not going to give you a lot of the herb's bio-activity. But just the activity of vaping is a bit comforting as well.

There are some others that I'm doing from "scratch", extracting from the dried and crushed herb into VG. I'll post back here, maybe even a video, with updates.

 

[utenzil]

Rose hips sounds like a good idea. Also, I've got some Rooibos tea, from South Africa, that I'm going to try. That should be interesting as well. There is also Osha, the root has a licorice flavor.

 

[michaelsil1]

Thanks for all the replies.

It is true that not everything is going to taste good even though it is "herbal". I have been using Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) non-alcoholic extract in VG has given me a pretty good flavor, it is kind of sweet. It is soothing, also, but it is true that the amount that would be ingested is not going to give you a lot of the herb's bio-activity. But just the activity of vaping is a bit comforting as well.

There are some others that I'm doing from "scratch", extracting from the dried and crushed herb into VG. I'll post back here, maybe even a video, with updates.

You can also use 100% PG to extract, it is also used as a preservative.

 

[SouthernBliss]

From what I have read it does seem like PG extractions go faster. But you have to balance that with it having a stronger flavor than VG.

 

[michaelsil1]

Actually, some of them taste quite good. The only one that tasted bad was the damiana extract in that thread of mine.

Just a heads up- they are likely to move this thread to the "not advisable" part of ECF as they did mine.
ECF does not advocate people vape herbs for their medicinal properties. So don't talk about any health benefits they may or may not have or the thread will get shut down. Also, don't talk about illegal drugs.

Could you list the ones that taste good.

 

[purelyscientific]

All of them except for damiana and passionflower.