I was wondering if anyone in this group knows anything about or has made herbal health wines? I am interested in making a Hawthorn Berry and Schishandra Berry Red Wine to help support my health by drinking a glass of it a day. Hawthorn Berries were chosen as they support heart health, improve circulation, reduce blood pressure, lower LDL cholesterol, combat inflammation, aid in digestion, and are packed full of potent antioxidants like polyphenols, proanthocyanidins, and flavonoids. Schishandra Berries were chosen as they contribute to better blood flow, improve heart function, enhances oxygen exhangte in tissues, helps with insomnia and palpitations, protects against myocardial infarcation, lowers LDL cholesterol, increases indurance, stamina, and energy levels, help with cognitive function by improving mental clarity, focus, and concentration, are neuroprotective, support liver detoxification, is an adaptogen that reduces fatigue, stress, and prevents cortisol-induced burnout. **************** Why a wine and not an infusion (water decoction) or a tincture? Well, the answer is threefold. I am looking into making it into a wine, as not only would the decoction extract most of the water-soluble constituents of the berries, the alcohol during its fermentation process would draw out the alcoholic constituents as well. Also, Red Wine, when drunk as 1 cup per day, offers cardiovascular benefits due to its polyphenols, especially resveratrol, catechin, and epicatechin, which can help protect blood vessel linings, reduce LDL cholesterol, reduce oxidative stress and inflammation, and prevent blood clots. So for me, it's about maximizing the beneficial aspects, specifically the polyphenols found within wine, hawthorn, and the schishandra. Also, I am using this as a health tonic/drink in addition to medicine to support heart health, especially. When I utilize tinctures, which I often do, they are more medicinal in nature and less nutritive/nourishing. It is this nutritive/nourishing aspect of wine that I am looking for.

Just a reminder that our monthly Sunday Evening Relax starts at 7pm GMT for Premium members. I'm really looking forward to some downtime tonight as I've spent the best part of today prepping for a Clinical Aromatherapy class tomorrow night looking at almost 80 clinical level essential oils that have a direct effect on the skeletal and muscular systems. Thirtythree page handout later and it's done! Phew! What have you been up to this Sunday? Clinical Aromatherapy in Classroom has been updated for next week for my students.

My friend and fellow Clinical Aromatherapist, Virginia Joy Stella Musacchio wrote a song, with a little help by Suno, about Black Spruce, one of my personal favourite EO's. Enjoy! https://suno.com/s/irjzcqHCySQELMwE

Hey everyone! We have a birthday kid in the house/community. 😁 Wishing you all the best, much health and happiness, Jane. Happy, happy Birthday! 🎉

I wrote this 7 years ago..... still pertinent today. MORE OF A FACT CHECK THAN A RANT. The FDA (USA) has granted a GRAS to the likes of the company below. GRAS basically means 'fit for human consumption'. HOWEVER when granted GRAS status it comes with strict guidelines as Essential Oils are indeed used as food additives in the food industry for FLAVOURINGS or preservatives. These oils are normally deterpinated, meaning that they have increased bioavailability, or/and rectified, which means the 'dangerous stuff' which could be poisonous when ingested has been removed and/or fractionated to remove terpenes, like Limonene (Limonene is one of the most powerful de-greasers known and is extracted and used in many cleaning products and in the motor industry for example) .On top of this when 'essential oils' are added to food it has a MAXIMUM 'dosage' set by GRAS of 2 drops per litre of water/liquid/equivalent. So to take a drop of Lemon Essential Oil in a glass of water is way above the recommendation and has not gone through the above processes to make it safe or dispersable in water. (Think of your Jif lemon juice). Don't even get me started on reps telling people to take these oils sublingually and neat! Back to the FDA. As many of you might know, the 2 companies in question were told they must not make any medical claims that "this oil will cure that" etc. Well, we know that they still continue to do so. Technically speaking, each rep that does this should be reported to the FDA, but of course nobody does, and the FDA would need a hell of a lot of reports to take action. To get around FDA/GRAS laws/rules and regulations, they label their Essential Oils bottles as 'supplements'. Essential Oils are not supplements! Supplements mean that it has nutritional value above what you get in your food. EO's contain no nutritional value whatsoever. So to the UK. The equivalent of the FDA is the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) which is one of 7 which come under the FSA (Food Standards Agency). To have anything which is ingested in the UK you have to obtain a licence from the MHRA before you can supply to the general public. NEITHER ONE of these companies have such a license in the UK and yet continue to label their bottles as 'supplements'. I took this up with CAB...because that is where you have to start for reports to go back to the FSA or MHRA. CAB were very shocked when I gave them the photographic evidence....but did anything get done? No.