Echinacea tincture.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.herbs
Subject: Re: Free Bottle of Echinacea Pay only $4.00 S/H
From: hrbmoore.rt66.com (Michael Moore)
Date: 12 Oct 1995 08:59:21 GMT

Brad Bishop <be.ix.netcom.com> wrote:

> Terry,
> You are quite right, I guess you object to paying $4.00 for the shipping and handling. I do not see the reason for your post. If you noticed the post says you pay for S/H ... the bottle is FREE. Does this satisfy your objection or are you just here to find minor things to gripe at people who are trying to help others with their health. You are viewing these groups searching for something are you not? Search for truth and you will find it, the truth will set you free. If you are concerned about your health get the FREE bottle and learn.

Huh??? I still sell Echinacea angustifolia tincture (fresh root 1:2 tincture we wildcraft ourselves in either Oklahoma or Wyoming) for 3 bucks an ounce to students and patients. Most of my former students that are in wholesale business don't sell it for more than $4.00 an ounce. If you tincture the dried root you only BUY, not pick or grow (around 75 cents an ounce wholesale for whole root...max) at the appropriate 1:5 strength at 65% alcohol (former N.F. standards), a pound yields 80 ounces (if you percolate) or around 70-73 oz. (if you macerate and have a GOOD hydraulic press). 95% grain Ethanol runs about $6-7 a quart.

Material costs per ounce:
Herb: $.15
ETOH $.20 (conservative high)
bottle $.45 (amber boston round w/glass dropper, plus shipping...max)
label $.15 (arbitrary max)
shrink-wrap band $.01 (less, actually)

That means the cost of MATERIALS is no more than a buck. Sure it takes time to MAKE the tincture...if you simply buy the herb (and don't drive three states away to dig it morally). Whether you percolate (better end product) or macerate-and-shake-and-press (it still works fine) the labor isn't that great. Where's the big bargain? Shipping might run 60-70 cents (probably less).

"Search for the truth and find it....(???)". You got lots of huevos, Brad, to then say "If you are concerned about your health get the FREE bottle and learn". Sure, it's cheaper than shlock purchased at the local vitamintorium...so what?? Lots of us could make a decent living (and do) out of the profits to be made from $4.00 a bottle (minus shipping and material costs)...if you sell enough bottles.

From: hrbmoore.rt66.com (Michael Moore)

hrbmoore.rt66.com (Michael Moore) wrote:
>If you tincture the dried root you only BUY, not pick or grow (around 75 cents an ounce wholesale for whole root...max)

----blah blah (snip)-----

I want to be fair here: Echinacea purpurea would be $.75 an ounce (top of the line) ... E. angustifolia will run up to $1.50 an ounce, raising the cost of the herb per ounce to about $.30 an ounce. I'm nitpicking here, but having owned Herbs Etc. for 15 years, I learned the hard way to nitpick.

From: hrbmoore.rt66.com (Michael Moore)

Brad Bishop <be.ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Do you know ... the cost of ...
> Adding Vitamin A, Beta Carotene,Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Zinc, Copper, Manganese, Boron, Vanadium, Molybdenum, Silicon, Chromium, Selenium and Garlic to the Echinacea?

Darn...just when I started to feel I might have been a little heavy-handed in my post (I'm rather mild-mannered as a rule)...

A) This is supposed to be a non-commercial herb news group

B) You announced a FREE bottle of ECHINACEA for a shipping and handling cost that approached the RETAIL price of decent Echinacea Tincture (in some areas).

C) Although it WASN'T such a bad offer on the surface, it was TACKY, because the $4.00 "shipping/handling" is absurd on the face of it ... you just came off (to some, at least) as being sort of petty-hustling.

D) Using plants instead of medicine or trendy anti-oxidants probably appeals to LOTS of the readers here (I know it does to me)...herbs are, after all, Close To The Source, in a world where little is.

E) After getting over the STYLE of the offer, it nonetheless was a decent one...lots of folks don't live in herbal "hotbeds" ... things are expensive in upscale stores and Nutritional Centers ... the wording of your offer can be overlooked, since the price IS good.

F) Tincture of Echinacea is the hydro-alcoholic extract of Echinacea angustifolia, E. pallida, E. sanguinea OR E. purpurea, usually expressed by a 1:5 or 20% strength (formerly official) ... or by many genially useful variants.
Technically, it is a LEGAL entity, since it was an Official drug term up until 1965.

G) You "advertised" Echinacea Tincture as free, with a $4.00 shipping "charge".

H) WHAT IS THIS OTHER SHIT!!??
i.e.:
"Vitamin A, Beta Carotene,Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Zinc, Copper, Manganese, Boron, Vanadium, Molybdenum, Silicon, Chromium, Selenium and Garlic"

The combo isn't dreadful (although, if combined in solution with Echinacea Tincture, the C and trace minerals are going to salt out, at the very least)

It's less offensive than LOTS of "phyto-mineralo-nutraceuticals" being hustled about, with seeming brainless vigor.

But it ISN'T Echinacea Tincture.

It may help people in distress...

But it ISN'T Echinacea Tincture.

It may be a remarkably CANNY formula, with many benefits...

But it ISN'T Echinacea Tincture.

Honest, Brad.

Michael Moore (hrbmoore.rt66.com)
http://www.rt66.com/hrbmoore/HOMEPAGE/HomePage.html