Thats where knowledge comes in. When I make my herbs I make them strong.. but only certain ones.. like cayenne.. I have one tincture of Cayenne that is used for emergencies only.. I use it for anyone who has the signs and sypmptoms of a heart attack as it works very similar to nitro.

There are other herbs that are safe herbs like Mullein that I tincture longer and make more potent.. as well as my breathing formula.. and pain salve.

Most herbs work well together..and can be incredibly beneficial, However, knowledge has everything to do with how something is done.. If one begins using herbs without knowing the chemical constituents as well as the chemical interactions of each herb with each other, then it can be very dangerous.

You definately need knowledge to use a dosing that is both safe and effective. Most of the commercial tea formula are so weak as to be 1/6th to 1/10th the therapeutic dose, many books for the layman also give the same subtherapeutic doses because the author and the publisher (herein the US at least) are terrified that someone might poison themselves and they'll be sued. You can even look at the "recommended dose" on many tinctures and compare it to the doses given in the old B.P. or Eclectic texts (British Pharmacopea) - or listed in Mrs. Grieve's "A Modern Herbal" which are drawn from the B.P. - and find the doses manufacturers list for tinctures are given in drops while the medical works give doses that are several mililitres for tinctures. You will also find these days that many DIY herbal guides, and companies as well, use tinctures of widely varying strengths instead of the Eclectic or Brussels Protocol standards used in works from when herbalism was more mainstream and it only makes dosing all the more confusing.

I once confronted an herbalist who ran a company producing tinctures about the doses being giving on his bottles being too low and his tinctures not being of a consistent strength ratio (1:10, 1:4, 1:5) and after a totally Nuage dgression about energetics and spiritual gobbeldygook - which had nothing to do with the question - he finally admitted that no they really wouldn't do much for people in "a medical sense" but it was a safe bet for him and the company because noone would get any interactions or side effects since the dose was so low and also people would not be willing to buy the product if they had to take a therapeutic amount since it would be too expensive and being so dilute) there would be too much alcohol. When I inquired as to why then his company didn't just produce fluidextracts of the weaker herbs so people could take a therapeutic dose I was told that it would be too expensive (for the company), since there was a 2500% profit on the product (yes 25x the cost of materials), and "people might take too much". When I inquired that, as a healer, wasn't this a big time unethical practice and much like big pharma's attitude he went back into talk of nuage spirituality and metaphysics rather than an answer. When I pressed it he got angry and demanded "Well, how much do you make in a year?".

I tend to agree with Dr. Schultz from my years dealing with patiets (and sometimes other herbalists) although I do not think it's necesary to "blast the body with potent herbs" I have found that many people are taking - and many 'herbalists' are prescribing the eqivalent of a quarter of a baby asprin for a headache rather than a whole one. The reasons for this also usually involve fear of litigation, profit motivations, and inadequate training and fear of interactions they don't know how to predict and prevent. I know I was trained in using correctly even the more powerful herbs such as conium, convallaria, aconite, etc, as well as how to standardise them for effect when making the tinctures (so that 1ml produces consistent action in refrence to the standard tincture) and I have used even the powerful ones for a number of years without ever ill effects and with consistent good results.

I don't make my own tinctures at this time but I have used Dr. Schulze's products and can attest to thier potency when it comes to helping me overcome various problems. Yes, they are potent, and yes they work, for me at least. By the way, the original link has the doctors name spelt wrong, there is no "t" in his name.