Are tinctures a medicine or a supplement and what’s the difference?

Ever wondered why your favorite herbal supplements say:

"These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any diseases."

Tinctures are considered dietary supplements by the United States government. Here's a little history as to why tinctures cannot be labeled as medicine.

All prescription and non-prescription drugs are regulated in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But in 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) defined dietary supplements as a category of food, which put them under more lenient regulations than drugs.

Because supplements aren’t considered drugs, the FDA does not mandate that tinctures or other supplements go through the strict trials and requirements that drugs do.

This doesn't mean that herbal supplements are not effective. It means that the FDA does not require sellers to prove the effectiveness of supplements.

This is a good and a bad thing. It's a good thing, because it opens the door for small makers and herbalists to craft supplements without being extremely cost-prohibitive. I'm talking multi-million dollar cost-prohibitive.

But it's a bad thing because there are amazing medical remedies that work for millions across the globe. Yet, there can be a lack of research verifying the benefits of natural remedies. This can prevent natural medicinal remedies from being taken seriously by health practitioners as medicines.

Also, these loose regulations open the door for many deceptive products on the market like flat tummy teas that don't work and prey on people with poor body image.

So how do we know that plants are effective as supplements?

At one point in time, tinctures and natural herbal remedies were the only medicine available. And that wasn't too long ago.

These ancestral remedies have been passed down through cultural traditions. We are lucky to have retained all of this knowledge about medicinal plants.

And not surprising to lovers of natural remedies and herbalists, many of the claims around medicinal plants have been verified by modern scientific research.

There is widespread global interest in using supplements as natural remedies. Thus, many naturopathic and scientific institutions publish research that suggests the effectiveness of plants as remedies.

In addition to clinical research, there’s plenty of traditional knowledge and anecdotal accounts of healing plants. Plants have been used as supplements by humans literally since humans were humans. It would be strange to deny the thousands of years of recorded and oral history that documents their uses.

For anyone interested in starting their learning journey into healing plants, two well-known bodies of ancient knowledge that include herbal thought are called Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda.

At Glam Gardener, we hope to offer the highest-quality herbal products, and we do that best with seasonal, wild, and medicinal plants and on a small scale.

We don't sell our products at giant distributors because we focus on quality, not scale. Our products often go out of stock, because we respect the limits of our harvests. We harvest and craft these remedies with our hands.

Our goal is to craft with quality and intention, and to teach you a little something along the way. Building connection, and co-creating a community of herbal warriors and self-empowered people.

We hope that you're one step closer to your tincture-crafting goals are we would love to have you be a part of the Glam fam!