Apium graveolens / Celery Seed Tincture

Apium graveolens, or celery belongs to the Apiaceae family and is native to Southern Europe. Currently Celery is grown and consumed as a vegetable in many parts of the world. Celery is a branched biennial plant, has thick dense branches and stems, and can grow up to 1 m.

The leaves are triangular, diamond, or spear-shaped and are about 5-50 mm long. Leaf edges are lobed and serrated, the stems of this plant are branched, moist and ribbed. Celery plant parts, such as stalks, leaves, oleoresins, and seeds can be used for flavouring foods.

Celery can be grown every season but grows faster in cloudy, cool, and slightly hot regions. It has been used in traditional medication to manage stomach aches and spasms in addition to its use as a laxative, diuretic, and sedative.

This herb has also been used as a heart tonic to lower blood pressure (in traditional African medicine in Tobago and Trinidad.) We at Nature’s Laboratory produce various products of Apium graveolens, such as celery seed tincture, fluid extracts, seed powder, and whole seed.

Packaging

Product is supplied in amber PET bottles with tamper evident screw tops. This keeps the contents fresh and protected from light. Look out for the QR code on the label - you can scan this with your smartphone to download the Certificate of Analysis document for this product.

What is a Tincture?

A herbal tincture is a concentrated extract of one or more herbs. The liquid in a tincture is a combination of alcohol and water. A tincture must contain at least 20% alcohol for preservation purposes. Alcohol concentrations tend to vary between 20% and 60%, but can be as high as 90% in some circumstances. At Herbal Apothecary we generally produce tinctures with alcohol concentrations of 25% - 45%. We use ethanol derived from sugar beat.

How Is A Tincture Made?

To produce the Apium graveolens / Celery Seed Tincture we combine a quantity of herb with a proportional amount of liquid. Depending on the herb and the strength of tincture required this ratio can be 1:2, 1:3 or 1:4. The herb, alcohol and water is placed in a production vessel suitable for the size of the batch.

Traditionally, tinctures have been made by a process of maceration. This is where the herb sits in the liquid and over a period of time the plant cells break down. This allows the plant matter to be released into the liquid. Occasionally the producer might agitate the mixture to help the process along.

At Herbal Apothecary we have spent decades improving our tincture production processes. We use a system called Hydro-Ethanolic Percolation. Percolation is where liquid slowly passes through the herb, from top to bottom. In our case, the liquid is not simply passed through the herb once and then collected. Instead, it is continually cycled through the herb. Hydro-Ethanolic Percolation is a combination of maceration and traditional percolation. The circulation of liquid through a spray head agitates the herb, helping the key chemical compounds to be released into the liquid.

Our production vessels are primarily stainless steel. We use low voltage (24v) pumps to circulate the liquid. We have also developed a system of float switches and relays. These ensure the pumps only activate when an adequate level of liquid is present in the sump at the bottom of the vessel. It can take some time for the liquid to filter through the herb.

We produce most of our tinctures using dried herbs, although we sometimes use fresh. It's important that the size of the pieces of herb in the production vessel are small enough for the alcohol to thoroughly penetrate. No prior processing is required for flowers and leaves which are smaller and more delicate. However, for roots, bark and berries which tend to be tougher and larger we use herbs which are diced up into small pieces. This ensures that the maximum amount of plant material can be extracted into the liquid.

The manufacturing process takes 7 days to complete. Once the process is finished, the herb is pressed to extract every last drop of precious liquid. The Apium graveolens / Celery Seed Tincture is filtered and then stored in bulk containers, before being bottled in smaller 250ml, 500ml and 1000ml quantities.

Click here if you'd like to know more about our herbal tincture manufacturing technology. At Herbal Apothecary we are committed to research - we want to provide a robust evidence base for the products we produce. As a result we review our manufacturing systems and processes in order to ensure we're making best use of the raw ingredients.