Medicinal Herb Fermentation?

[Dace]

Adoptedbyachicken gave me this advice for my dog's yeast problem "Oil of Oregano or Oregano leaf powder added to his feed will cure him of harboring the yeast from the inside, I had to do that myself for 3 months once for a recurrent situation, topical was just taking it off for a week or so then it came right back. A health or natural food store will have both in the yeast buster section."

Which made me think of a product that I was looking at at a recent trade show. It is called Kefiplant ( http://www.kefiplant.com/ ) but the basis is that medicinal herbs are fermented to make the active ingredients much more bio-available.

I think that instead of just giving my dog oregano oil or leaf powder, I may lacto ferment some oregano and add that to his blended veggies.

Any one care to flush out ideas or thoughts on this?

 

[abifae]

Be very careful with it. Fermenting, cooking, soaking in vodka... they can change the properties of the herb itself and/or change the way your body uses it.

For example, you need far less of an herb when it's been infused in vodka. For me, since my liver now has to kick in to the game, it will sometimes entirely change whether my body can/will use the herb at all.

I haven't studied fermenting enough to really know what would change, but it seems intuitive that they would. Not sure how much stronger it would be or if anything else would change

In other words, really small dose at first and see what happens LOL. I prefer experimenting on myself than others just in case... I've had some... interesting results at times LOL!

 

[Dace]

Vodka? Heck I don't want to get the little guy drunk....I am talking about lacto fermenting, which boosts the nutritional value AND makes the phyto-compounds and nutrients more bio-available.

Am I missing something?

'Research has shown that the individual actives created by Kefiplants patented fermentation bioprocess improve and maintain human health. The powerful bioavailable micronutrients and nanonutrients created by the fermentation work synergistically with the liberated phytocompounds from the individual botanical to create a powerful revitalizing tonic.

The synergistic activity of these bioavailable actives compounds can restore, rejuvenate and revitalize the body.'
http://www.kefiplant.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61&Itemid=82

I am simply thinking about taking their research on medicinals and doing my own fermenting.

 

[ORChick]

I googled "medicinal herb fermentation" (as you probably did as well) and found a couple of mentions of fermenting with Kombucha - that is, making a tea with your herb of choice, and/or adding that herb to your regular blend, and letting the scoby do its work. There was also a note that essential oils would burn the scoby, and maybe kill it, so you would want to research that. I imagine that it is the essential oil of oregano that is the medicinal element. But perhaps the EO in the tea is too dilute to do harm? No idea, really, but certainly worth the experiment, I would think.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I am so glad you brought this up, Dace. My dog has been having issues with a skin infection all summer. We finally got it under control (with an extended 2nd round of antibiotics), but I might try the oregano treatment. I think I will infuse some oil though.
In our case I think the skin issues are caused indirectly by allergies. We just need to find out just what it is :/
But I am trying to do what I can to prevent her having another skin infection. Our poor dog was so miserable all summer

 

[abifae]

Vodka? Heck I don't want to get the little guy drunk....I am talking about lacto fermenting, which boosts the nutritional value AND makes the phyto-compounds and nutrients more bio-available.

Am I missing something?

I've just never fermented herbs before. I don't know if it would change any properties in the medicinal value or if it would change dosage.

Just saying be careful lol. Test on really small doses.

Releasing the good stuff is great nutritionally... but I wonder what it does medicinally.

 

[framing fowl]

This is just my opinion but I don't think fermenting oregano leaves would be a big deal.

However, I would approach fermenting medicinals or essential oils with caution. We're all learning here about the volatility of oils and what havoc they can cause with our bodies! When I was researching sassafras root that I was thinking about getting, the main essential oil in the root is only one molecule of ammonia away from being an amphetamine and is used to make XTC.

 

[freemotion]

I don't know anything about fermenting herbs for medicinal purposes, but I do ferment oregano in my salad dressing mix! It is yummy!

I have a few thoughts for the mix:

Be careful what you put into a batch of kombucha tea, as the scoby is bacteria and yeast, and something meant to kill yeast or inhibit it may not be so good for a symbiotic colony of bacteria and YEAST. Many essential oils are antibacterial and antifungal, too.

Oregon grape (not a true grape) is good for yeast issues and can be taken internally.

As for putting herbs in vodka, that is to make a tincture, which you then use by the drop, so no worries about a tipsy doggie!

I think I'd personally experiment with pulverizing the fresh oregano (if available) and ferment it as you would normally make something like sauerkraut. I'd probably add it to something the dog would like in a fermented form....hmmm....what does he like? My Biscuit will eat anything, my Gunnar is very, very picky.

 

[Dace]

OK I like the feedback here

As I said I would be getting the oregano and fermenting it, as Free said sauerkraut style....not messing around with oils. Probably just add a teaspoon to his morning meal.

If anyone looked at the website I would be very interested in your feedback, I find it fascinating and frankly I would think most everyone on SS would embrace the idea! I am a bit surprised at the reservation in general.

With their Kombucha, they are not using a traditional mother, they are using kefir grain.

 

[freemotion]

I guess I am a little suspicious as there is a lot of missing info on the site. I don't know why they call it kombucha when they are kefiring the stuff, except that maybe kombucha is a more known word so they are using that instead? There are water kefir grains and milk kefir grains and more than just milk can be kefir'd....but it doesn't then become kombucha. I've done many, many hours of reading on fermenting, including days of reading on both kefir and kombucha and I've never seen the terms used interchangeably before.

The idea is good, it just feels inaccurate to me without that being addressed. And no labels could be found. And no research. I like to see lots of science backing up claims, and I could find none on the site or in any of the links. That red flags it for me. Could be that they just have the wrong person building their site, but......hmm.