What is a lozenge?
A lozenge is simply a flattened cake of herbal ingredients designed to offer relief from a sore throat or cough. It is usually a combination of sugar to assist in its pleasant flavor, some type of mucilage made from either slippery elm bark, comfrey root, marshmallow root, etc. and some other powdered herbs and essential oils for flavor.
Now, bear in mind, that just like making a pot of soup, there are endless ways to create a lozenge. This just happens to be one of the methods I prefer to use.
Mucilage may also be prepared from either gum Arabic, or gum Tragacanth and a few drops of essential oils suitable for a lozenge IE: peppermint, wintergreen, anise, etc. Making sure that we only use pure essential oils for medicine making and not some replication from a lab.
The whole idea of a lozenge is for it to be slowly dissolved in the mouth, allowing for the herbal ingredients to come in local contact with the mouth, throat and respiratory tract. The actions of a lozenge can range from expectorant, demulcent, sedative or antiseptic dependent on the ingredients used.
It is important to remember that the finer the grind of the herbs and sugars used in this recipe the "nicer" your finished product will be.
The only "special" piece of equipment necessary for this recipe is a tincture press of some sort, as this will be necessary to extract the "water" from the mucilage so that you don't end up with too "wet" of a mixture.
Like anything in life, there is always more than one way to make something, but, this is the recipe I prefer for making an exquisite final product. So, here we go!
The first thing we need to do is to prepare a mucilage.
Using either slippery elm bark, marshmallow root, or comfrey root, grind 6g dried herb into a fine powder and add that plus 100ml of cold water into a small jar with a lid. Stir this well until all of the powder is incorporated into the water and then put the lid on it so that the moisture does not evaporate and let it sit overnight or at least for 8 hours.
Next, put the mass (which now looks like an amoeba or some other form of slime, lol), into a pressing cloth and place it into your tincture press. Apply pressure and allow the pressure to stay constant until no more moisture comes out. This will take several hours. A constant pressure is better rather than a quick high pressure, as mucilage does not give up is moisture easily. Low and slow is the best here.
Once you have eliminated the majority of the moisture from your mucilage you are ready to create.
OTHER OPTIONS
Using gum Arabic
Mix one part gum Arabic with 2 parts water, let it sit for several hours then strain.
Moisten 50g gum Arabic with 75ml of cold water. Set it aside for several hours until the gum is dissolved, then add enough water to make up to 125ml.
Using gum Tragacanth
Mix 18 ml food grade glycerin with 76 ml water.
Heat to boiling point.
Remove from heat and add in 6 g gum Tragacanth.
Macerate for a period of 24hours, stirring the mixture every once in a while.
Strain and then press through a pressing cloth until the majority of the moisture in gone.
There is no real hard and fast measure of ingredients here, as it all depends on how "wet" your mucilage is to create. So, what I like to do is to have all of my ingredients ready and then just keep mixing ingredients in, until I get a consistency that is easy enough to handle.
Remember that all of the herbs and sugar that you are using should be ground down to a fine powder.
I like to put the blob of mucilage on a large dinner plate and with the back side of a fork, start mixing in some sugar, (I start with about 1 cup and go from there), some of the finely powdered herbs I am using IE: slippery elm bark, marshmallow root, licorice root, etc. and just keep adding and mixing until I get the consistency needed to roll a measurement of about 1/4 tsp. into balls. Once the final mass is ready to begin rolling I add in my essential oils.
You can use anywhere from 10 - 50 drops of essential oils or a combination of oils. You may also add in some tinctures as well suitable for this application. IE: mullein, horehound, wild cherry bark, etc.
Mixing your essential oils in a small separate bottle ahead of time will allow the oils to blend together before adding them to your final preparation. The same can be said for tinctures if you are using more than one.
Once the mass is mixed we can now sit there with a cup of tea and begin the task of rolling the mixture into little balls. I like to take a dinner plate and sprinkle it liberally with a powdered herb like slippery elm that I can then drop the little balls onto. Once I have a plate full of coated balls, I flatten them with my finger and I can then transfer them to a cookie sheet to sit and dry for a few days, or if I am in a hurry I will pop them into my food dehydrator at about 125 degrees for 24 hours or so. You will know when they are ready if they are impossible to crack in half. Once the moisture is fully extracted from these lozenges they are a shelf stable product that will last as long as they don't get rehydrated.
They make a great gift, and are a wonderful creation to do with children as there is no cooking required.
You may also roll the mass out on a well dusted counter or parchment and cut out small circles using the lid of a small bottle etc. Just keep the size small. Remember these are meant to be sucked slowly so a small size is much nicer.
OTHER OPTIONS
Like any recipe, it is meant to be tweaked and designed for you and your family's needs. So, get creative and enjoy your new skill. With this in mind, here are a few other options for adding to your creation
Food grade glycerin - 1 -2 tsp.
Honey
Cinnamon - ground, up to 1 Tbsp.
Anise or star anise - ground, up to 1 Tbsp. NOTE: Star anise is used in the production of Tamiflu TM
Enjoy your new creation and pay forward your new skill to others.
Much love,
Marie
Comments