 Okay so now what we're going to do is demonstrate how to make a herbal decoction. Herbal decoctions are made using roots so I don't think we needed to really explain to you how to make a herbal tea. A herbal infusion is something that we do all the time with those leafy flowery parts and I think last year in your Foundations of Western Herbal Medicine module Peter did a demonstration of making a herbal tea so we're going to move on to the decoctions, root part so the material we need we can use scales in the beginning to establish the amount that's needed. Once we've been doing it for a few days you know how many teaspoons you're going to require. We've got 750 mils of water here we want to be using distilled water or reverse osmosis water wherever possible tap water as you know has got all sorts of things in there that we don't really like as naturopaths. We've got our herbal medicine we've put it in this Pyrex jar now but it would normally be in a herbal medicine dispensing bag we've got our pan and we've got our cooker so this is something that herbalists love doing we love seeing our herbs we love the smells that emanate from herbs it is harder for patients we've talked about the pros and cons of decoctions they're brilliant but they're not the easiest thing for patients to do what we've got here is we've got some licorice and some scutillaria bacalensis so it's going to be a really good anti-inflammatory skin healing liver stimulating medicine with the licorice in there just to take the edge off it in terms of the bitter taste of scutillaria bacalensis but also licorice is a great anti-inflammatory and tonic for the system. So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to weigh out our 30 grams of dried herbs so you make sure the scale is tarry to zero you know normally it's around there you go 30 grams quite heavy dense material then we're going to put that into a pan and then we're going to add our water we've got 750 mils of lovely pure water going in there and then we're going to bring this to the boil right that's on the boil and then we're going to let that reach heat and then we're going to turn it down to a simmer for 20 minutes which is the time it takes to decoct keep the lid off remember when we're making a decoction we want the medicine to start to reduce we want at least 20 percent of the water to boil away because that becomes important in terms of concentrating the medicine and giving it more of a shelf life this amount of medicine is enough for two days if you keep it in the fridge so 750 mils of water 30 grams of rooty material bring it to the boil and then as soon as it's reached the boil turn it down to the minimum temperature required just to keep that water moving and let it cook away for 20 minutes so our decoction has been cooking away here for 20 minutes first of all it comes to the boil the froth rises up so you've got to watch it carefully and then turn it down to the minimum heat possible so that the herbs and the roots are moving around in the water but not over boiling you'll remember from earlier slides that you know this method doesn't really work for very aromatic herbs because all this steam that's rising up from the pot if there were volatile oil containing herbs we'd be losing some of those important constituents into the air so these roots have been cooking away and gradually reducing the steam is taking water away and after 20 minutes the volume of water will have reduced by 20 percent that's important for making a concentrated medicine and it's also important because that concentration really cleans that tea it really makes it preserve better infusions you'll remember don't really last the decoction because it's concentrated can last for about 48 hours in the fridge so it's brilliant for you know making the medicine and then having the medicine over a few days so what we'll do we'll turn it off now it's reduced it's cooked it's concentrated all the goodness has been extracted from the roots now you know make sure the pan handle isn't too hot and then I'm just going to pour it through a strainer into a jar and you can see that lovely rich colour of the decoction scutillaria bacallensis which we've got in here is a very good anti-inflammatory herb it contains berberine kind of these yellow pigments are very good for dredging the liver cleaning the blood so now we've got the decoction you can have a cup of tea now you know I'll show you the the the general amount to use you know about sort of 50 to 60 mil will be a good dose it's quite a bitter herb scutillaria bacallensis we put licorice in there for its benefits and to slightly mask the flavour of bitterness you could add a little bit of honey to it if a patient has a fussy palate so here's your tea ready prepared you've got enough in here for at least another five or six doses just keep this in the fridge you might want to put it into a slightly smaller container so it fits nicely in your fridge and then three times a day you'll take your dose before meals and you probably want to just warm it up a little bit to get it to a nice temperature to drink rather than trying to drink it cold drinking very bitter herbs cold is harder than drinking bitter herbs when they're warm and if necessary sweeten with a little bit of honey or maple syrup compliance is the key often decoctions have a stronger and more bitter taste than teas and we want to make sure our patients take their medicines so adding a little bit of honey you know obviously it's not ideal but if it means they take their medicine then that's absolutely fine so chin chin if you enjoyed this video please give it a like and subscribe below so you don't miss any future content to learn more about cnm or its courses head to www.naturopathy-uk.com