DTM Tincture

My favorite tincture technique is a double extraction which means the mushroom is soaked in alcohol and then in hot water, each of which extracts different qualities from the mushroom. Some people use a triple extraction which means an initial cold-water soak is performed. Others use a “Spagyric” technique where the solid remains of the soak are burned and the ash added back into the tincture.  Many other techniques exist.

Figuring out the best way to extract the medicinal qualities from mushrooms is quite troubling. Do different mushrooms deserve different treatments? What is the best technique? How long to soak? At what temperatures? There are many questions! There are also very few answers. There is hardly any research to provide guidance. Just to be perfectly clear: we are not experts. I am just going to tell you what we do and why we do it that way. I’m sure there are other methods that are equally viable.

I have relied mainly on three resources to hone techniques and produce results:

1. Chinese herbal medicine has been using mushrooms for thousands of years. We pay attention to the traditional techniques and pick the brain of our favorite practitioner: David  Teitler of Carbondale Acupuncture Center.
2. Robert Dale Rogers, RH is the author of The Fungal Pharmacy and Medicinal Mushrooms – The Human Clinical Trials. His books offer a wealth of information, both from Western medicinal research and traditional medicinal usages. While they don’t contain all the answers, they do an excellent job of summarizing the existing research and tradition for each mushroom. I use both as research guides.
3. Tradd Cotter is the author of Organic Mushroom Farming and Remediation. Tradd is a researcher and his book shares good technique for making safe and effective tinctures. If you are going to buy tincture, I’d recommend Mushroom Mountain’s MycoMatrix brand.