Medicinal Herb Fermentation?

[Dace]

I do know that the company is brand spanking new. As I recall the woman that I spoke with at the show does have a some research, but I need to contact her to get more info....even their literature was not all the informative. BUT, then again they are selling this as a private label option, so they are not set up to market to the masses....so they are just not polished up in that way.

She did explain the kombucha aspect, but I don't remember what she said.

 

[framing fowl]

Morning Dace! I did go check out there site. Interesting but no prices. Did you buy or get to try any of their products at the trade show?

I guess as an SS'er, I'd be interested if they were selling the grains to do their kombucha because... I want to do it myself! I didn't see or read anything that made it stand out over any of the other nutritional products that I do purchase...

 

[Dace]

Hey FF!

They do not sell to the public in small quantities....they are looking for companies who want to private label their products. They sell in bulk, unpackaged product.

The thing that is unique here is that when a food is fermented, the nutritional value goes way up. So to do that with a medicinal herb is very interesting to me!

Think of all the herbal remedies out there....we are talking here about oregano for a yeast problem, well if you ferment the oregano (in theory) you should get even more benefit out of it. Right?

I dunno.....I am just fascinated by this product and think, why didn't I ever think of that? Followed by how can I incorporate that at home?

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

The products I used were wild Mediterranean oregano which is apparently not the same plant as the herb we cook with oregano. So really not sure what results you would be getting fermenting the spice leaves, but I can't see it hurting.

http://www.joyofthemountains.com/ is the current brand I have and they do have some information on that site that may be helpful to you.

 

[Dace]

Thanks ABAC....I will check out that link

 

[lwheelr]

Two things...

I recently went through several bouts of food poisoning, from commercial foods. I used herbal remedies to combat the bacteria, and in every case, doing so gave me fungal infections. Mostly showed up as skin irritations - painful inflammations.

I used to get these and not know what caused them too - I'd treat them with anti-fungals, and that would control them partially, but they'd always come back if I stopped treatment.

This time, pretty much every time, I ate 1 tablespoon of kefir and the fungal infection started clearing up within 2-3 hours. This happened every time, and was repeated enough that I'm confident this is what did it. It did not come back, either, until something else happened to upset the bacterial balance in my body again.

Fungal infections often have more to do with the internal balance of bacteria in your body than they do with having a disease you have to conquer. It is normal to have fungus active in your body, but if the natural bacteria that usually keeps it from overgrowing is diminished, the fungus will blow into an infection of its own. This often accompanies or follows antibiotic treatment (whether chemical, or herbal). Rather than try to kill the fungus with anti-fungal treatments, it has been more effective for me to go to the root of the problem - and to restore the balance.

Yogurt DIDN'T fix it - it gave me a minor improvement, but nothing like what the kefir did.

Secondly, fermenting DOES change the chemical composition of foods. It can make them more nutritious in some ways, but it can also lessen some elements, just as any preservation method does. The advantage with FOOD is that it does so less than most preservation methods.

That said, food value, and medicinal value are often two different things - they do occasionally cross, where the medicinal value is dependent upon part of the nutritional value of the herb, but most of the time, they are fairly independent in how they react to preservation.

During that bout with food poisoning, I learned that the WAY that a medicinal herb is preserved can make a huge difference in efficacy. I had both tinctures, and teas of several different herbs. They did NOT work at all the same! There were similarities, but the balance of the medicinal qualities was very different - one might have more effect on one aspect and less on another, or one might have more side effects than the other, or they just might have a totally different set of side effects!

More like cousins than siblings, if you know what I mean.

So I don't doubt that fermenting medicinal herbs would have a huge impact on their efficacy.

Drying, as with a tea, usually doesn't convert much - some nutrients or components can be lost or lessened, and some slightly concentrated, but in general, drying is like a carbon copy - lighter in some areas but usable in place of fresh.

Tinctures are preserved in alcohol. Alcohol preservation does lose some elements, and it changes others. It can actually strengthen some, because you are combining two things together, but it stops bacterial action since bacteria cannot grow in alcohol - it is, therefore, a fairly static process. So tinctures are not like a carbon copy - they are more like a tracing, where the original lines are combined with some interpretation from the drawer.

Fermentation of a medicinal herb would be more like an artistic representation of an herb - where the original is held up and the artist draws what they see, and what they feel, about the herb, and where the process of creation changes over a long period of time. This is because fermentation is not just a combining, it is an ACTION between two or more elements (usually a great many). The herb is infiltrated with bacteria, which then digest parts, and produce a by-product. That can remove, enhance, or even replace medicinal qualities.

Fermentation is not static - it is dynamic. So the herb you have on day 3 of fermentation is not the same herb you have on day 10. Bacterial colonies invade, and go to work. They multiply as long as conditions are ideal, but when they use up the food that they prefer, they will die out and be replaced by other types of bacteria. The fermentation process is much like a forest, where brush grows (fast growing), then deciduous trees (slower growing, which like full sun), then evergreens (can sprout in the shade). The mature fermentation can be quite different than an earlier version of the same ferment as the conditions, colonies, and end results change day to day. Generally, this is evidenced in increasing sourness, but also more complexity of flavor as the ferment develops.

Because of that, I would not consider fermentation to be a good way to preserve or even enhance medicinal qualities that I wanted in an herb. It would simply be too unpredictable - and it might work on day 3, but not on day 10, and it might backfire completely on day 20.

That said... again... with a lot of experimentation, you might find that a certain herb, fermented for a certain number of days, then alternately preserved, provided a better treatment for a specific condition. But I don't think I'd want to do the experimentation!

Traditionally, medicinal herbs are dried or preserved with alcohol. And I think there is good reason why!

 

[FarmerDenise]

Thanks for that informative input.
I am still dealing with my dog's skin inflamation. It is way better, since I started adding a rosemary infused olive oil and tea tree oil to her dog shampoo and bathe her every 5 days or so.

I just re-started my kefir the other day, figuring it was time we all had some again. I will be sure to give some to the dog too. She likes it anyway.

I wish I could get my neighbor to read and try this. He has terrible and very painfully inflamed skin. But he barely does what the doctors tell him, he wants a quick fix, preferably via a pill