Hey David, curious your experience with the moisture energetics of Hibiscus. It's one of those interesting plants that seems mixed. Taste is rather astringent, yet it has some mucilaginous polysaccharides. Drying? Moistening? Different depending on the tissue affected or preparation? I would assume a tincture of it, being essentially devoid of the polysaccharides would be more drying, whereas perhaps an infusion would have more of those polysaccharides and thus be a bit more moistening... or maybe just making it less drying? Thank you good sir. Sajah

I was looking through the materia medica sheets and didn't see it in there as of yet, unless I missed something? I was thinking this morning that maybe we covered it, but I couldn't find a sheet for it yet... sorry if I overlooked something here. A bit sleep deprived over here with a fresh baby in the house!!

You are correct we have not done this yet, I have Hibiscus as cool and both moistening and drying. There are not many plants that have both effects , but there are some - Purple Loosestrife, White Pond Lily, Linden Flower, Strawberry Leaf, and they are very useful for leaky gut, diarrhea, and GI or mucous membrane inflammation. Congratulations on the new baby, I hope you get some sleep soon :)

Thank you sir!! Yea moistening and drying, that’s what I was thinking. Gotta love those paradoxical plants!! Seems like best as a water extract right? Flavonoids, polysaccharides, plant acids etc seem to prefer water. Is the tincture useless in your opinion?

Hey sorry for the additional post here... I always think of a followup question after I respond. So how do you understand this dual moistening-drying quality? Is it moistening in one particular tissue/organ and drying in another? Or is the dryness in this case more of an astringent/tonifying property, such as in the gut mucosa, while at the same time mucilaginous and soothing to the mucosa? I'm always trying to determine how to decipher seemingly contradictory properties and what exactly is happening physiologically in the body. Also one thing I've noticed about Hibiscus is that some texts refer to it as an emmenagogue, but then seem to define that as basically "something that affects menses." That's not been my understanding of that term, I was always taught that it's more something that specifically stimulates menses. Considering Hibiscus's properties, it seems more indicated for excess heat/inflammation/irritation and bleeding, and would be more applied for menorrhagia rather than amenorrhea. Is this on track? It's challenging when different herbalists seem to define terms differently... reminds me of what Rosemary Gladstar said which is that the only thing herbalists can agree on is to not use aluminum cookware!! (or something like that) Hopefully these ?s make sense Thanks again David.

I think the tea is superior to the tincture, although I would not say the tincture is useless, just much more expensive and less effective.