Design preview · Draft 2 New look. Existing site unchanged.

Botanical knowledge · Past & present

Old knowledge.
A clearer way
forward.

A growing reference for tinctures and botanical preparations, bringing historical sources into conversation with modern evidence.

A new chapter for tincture.recipes. Start with the existing collection while the deeper reference takes shape.

FIELD NOTESNo. 001
Decorative line illustration of flowering stems, inspired by a botanical field notebook
A study in curiosityOriginal illustration · not an identification guide

The purpose

Good questions.
Traceable answers.

Which plant? Which part? What did earlier writers describe, and what does today’s research actually support? This resource is being rebuilt around those questions, with room for agreement, contradiction and uncertainty.

Start exploring

A place for every
part of the story.

Find the current recipes, understand the project, and stay connected as the collection grows.

01 / THE COLLECTION

Recipes & guides

Nine local entries: three source-derived recipe drafts and six legacy reference records, with the original sources kept visible.

Open the directory
02 / THE PEOPLE

A distiller’s perspective

Meet Scott Galbiati and the Maine distilling company behind Culinary Solvent, our sister project.

Read our story
03 / THE CONVERSATION

Find us & follow along

Connect through Culinary Solvent’s channels and Scott’s new tincture.recipes Facebook group, currently private.

Find our channels

A glimpse of the research approach

One name.
More than one story.

CHAMOMILE · SOURCE EXAMPLE

A common name can conceal different plants and preparations. This small comparison shows how future botanical entries can keep those distinctions visible.

1850 edition

Culpeper’s “Camomile”

The entry assumes the reader knows the plant, omits a description, and records remedies in the language of its time. It does not establish a modern species identification.

The Complete Herbal, p. 39

1897

Fernie’s distinctions

Fernie separates Anthemis nobilis from Matricaria chamomilla and discusses several preparations. Those historical reports need to be evaluated, rather than treated as proof.

Herbal Simples, pp. 84–88

Today

A question of evidence

NCCIH’s German chamomile summary says reliable evidence is insufficient to establish clinical usefulness. It also describes allergy risks, possible drug interactions and other uncertainties.

Read the NCCIH summary

Historical reference, not a recipe. This example supplies no dose or preparation instructions. A source about one species or extract does not establish the effects of another. Sources checked 5 November 2026.

What comes next

More depth.
One ingredient at a time.

The next stage is to develop source-linked ingredient entries and practical preparations. The three recipe drafts show what the original site actually recorded, with errors and open questions visible. No tested recipe, treatment recommendation or “optimal” extraction formula is being claimed.

See the editorial direction