Suggested Use

Suggested use depends on the age, weight and sensitivity of each individual. Some individuals may find they need less than the suggested use on the label. For an acute condition, herbs can be taken every 1-3 hours until symptoms subside. For general maintenance, herbs can be taken 2-4 times per day. Please feel free to call during our weekly free call-in hour to ask one of our staff herbalists about dosage questions you may have: Wednesdays 1-2pm EST, 207-596-0714.

If taking an herb or compounded formula long term, we recommend taking a week long break every 6 months and checking in regularly about long term use with an herbalist or other practitioner.

Typical Suggested Use

Adult: 40 drops (2 mL) mixed in 1-2 ounces of water.

Child: 1 drop/5 pounds of body weight mixed in 1-2 ounces of water or sugar-free juice. As a general guideline for children, we use Clark's Rule: Divide the child's weight (in pounds) by 150. This gives you the fraction of the adult dose appropriate to give a child. Please consult with your herbalist or practitioner before giving extracts to a child, as some are too strong for children.

Pets: Please consult with your vet. Usually 1 drop of a liquid extract or glycerite for every 5 lbs of body weight.

Suggested Use of extracts in comparison to capsules

Most capsules are double ought (00) which is equivalent to 300mg powdered plant material. Our tinctures range from ratios of plant material to menstruum (liquid used for extraction) of 1:2 - 1:8, although most are 1:4. 1=plant material and the second number is menstruum.

• 1/4 tsp dose is approximately 1mL of extract.
• In a 1:2 ratio extract, there is 500mg per mL of extract.
• 1:3 = 330mg/mL.
• 1:4 = 250mg/mL.
• 1:5=200mg/mL.

A 1oz bottle of extract holds approximately 30mL.

Standarized Extracts

Our extracts are not standardized by particular constituents, but are made in the traditional fashion of extracting the whole plant part in menstruum. For example, while some companies will guarantee a particular level of one "active constituent" in their extracts, we believe that the whole plant has integrated constituents which work together. To us, the whole is more important than the parts.

It is common to have non-traditional side effects from standardized extracts, as they are not representative of the traditional means of making herbal remedies. Standardized extracts are of great use in particular health challenges, but it should be noted that these extracts act very differently from traditional remedies because they have been altered chemically.