Posology - DOSING / DOSAGE GUIDELINES
Part of learning to use herbs correctly is learning how to dose them properly. Herbalists use a broad range of dosages, from single-drop doses of tinctures to bulk doses of herbs in near food quantities.
Because of this, dosage, especially of tinctures, sometimes becomes a point of contention in Western Herbal medicine. Some professional herbalists favor large doses (5 milliliters), whereas others use drop doses (1-5 drops), of most common tinctures. Both drop doses and substantial doses have their place.
The theory is that small doses of tinctured plants contain the essence, or energetic signature of the plant. When matched to a person correctly, they act in a subtle yet powerful way through an unknown mechanism of action. On the other hand, substantial doses of herbs act through their chemical constituents to influence physiology and pathology.
The Drop
Although the dosages for many tinctures are given in drops, the drop was never a good way to measure fluid volume. The size of a drop varies depending on the size of the dropper, the technique used to produce the drop, and the density and surface tension of the liquid. In pure water there are about 20 drops per milliliter, in pure alcohol there are about 12 drops per milliliter. Most tinctures are a mixture of water and alcohol (a hydroalcoholic extract). For a standard low-proof tincture (25-40% EtOH) you can assume around 22-28 drops in 1 milliliter. For a high-proof tincture (80-90% EtOH) there are around 35 drops per milliliter. These differences in drop size led English pharmacists in 1809 to adopt the minim as an alternative to the drop. The minim is measured in a graduated pipette called a minimometer. A minim is described as exactly 61.611519921875 microliters.
Knowing the exact number of drops in a milliliter or even a minim is not really necessary in modern herbalism. The only time dosing by the drop is important is if you are taking a low-dose (toxic) botanical. Low-dose botanicals should be made according to an official dispensatory and dosed as that dispensatory advises. Use The Dispensatory of the United States of America by Remington, Wood, and colleagues (1918) or King’s American Dispensatory (1898).
Dosing for Adults
Standard doses are included throughout the database listings for individual herbs and most of the formulas. When purchasing commercial herbal formulas or single herbs, assume that the recommended dose on the bottle is for an average weight person of 150 pounds.
Lower-range doses are used for people who are smaller than average or who react with sensitivity to herbs and supplements. Use higher-range doses for larger people or people who are less sensitive to herbs and supplements. You can also adjust the dose upward if the results you’re getting aren’t strong enough or the condition is more severe.
Develop your intuition when dosing herbs by paying attention to your own body, especially when using liquids. Generally speaking, a formula will be tolerable (or even taste good) only as long as you need it. As soon as you have taken enough, the taste changes and you won’t want any more. (An exception to this is digestive tonics; although you might not like the bitter taste to begin with, most of the time you begin to tolerate or even enjoy it within a few days).