0 items - $0.00
No products in the cart.
An Herbal Tonic You Can Make for Immunity
Do you have a blender? A grocery store nearby? If you do, you can make a tonic for the immune system very, very easily. This is an old recipe, and I’ve seen it called many things. I’ve always called it Immune Tonic. That seems to describe it perfectly. 
It destroys bacteria, viruses, and fungi on contact. Colds and flu and, of course, COVID-19, are caused by viruses, not bacteria, though bacteria can cause secondary infections. Fungi cause fungus infections, such as fingernail and toenail fungus, athlete’s foot, and candida.
Step-by-Step:
Step one: Go to the store and buy some organic, raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar, an onion (white if possible, otherwise yellow), a head of garlic with fat cloves, a piece of horseradish, a piece of ginger root, and some cayenne peppers (habernero, serrano or some other hot variety- hottest you can find). For quantity, just remember you are going to need about the same volume of each one. Try for organic, if possible.
Step two: At home, wash the vegetables. Peel all but the peppers and ginger. Chop all but the peppers roughly, just enough to be able to tell when you have approximately the same amount of each. Remove the stems of the peppers, but leave them whole, since the juices can be irritating to skin and eyes. If you get any juice on your hands, wash with soap. Plain water will not remove the irritating substance. However, if you get some in your eyes (maybe by touching them with your hands) don’t panic. It will sting, but won’t damage your eyes. In fact, you may find you can see better afterward, since cayenne will increase circulation.
Step three: Pour some vinegar into a blender and add equal quantities of each of the five vegetables. Be sure you have just enough vinegar in the blender to make the blending easy. (You want to end up with a large proportion of vegetables to liquid).
Step four: Pour the whole thing into one or more jars with lids (mason jars with plastic lids are great). Leave enough space in the jars so you can shake the contents. If the lid is metal, place a plastic baggie or piece of plastic over the top of the jar before putting on the lid. Otherwise, the vinegar may corrode the metal of the lid.
Step five: Screw on the lid and try shaking the jar. It should shake in a liquid way. It should not say, “Thump, thump,” which it will do if it’s too dry. It should say, “Slosh, slosh.” Add more vinegar if it is thumping. If necessary, use more jars.
Step six: Place the jars in a cupboard, so they can stay in the dark most of the time. You can tape paper over the glass if you can’t put the jars in a cupboard. Or drape the jars with a dishcloth – any means to keep the mixture out of the light.
Step seven: Every day, preferably several times a day, shake the bottles. Add more vinegar if needed to keep them sloshing.
Step eight: After 10 days to 2 weeks, the tonic will be ready to use. However, if someone is sick, go ahead and use it immediately. It just gets better and better while it soaks.
Options:
1. You can strain it. Use a strainer lined with a undyed or white cloth; then squeeze the cloth-wrapped vegetables to get the maximum liquid out of them. In that case, you can still eat the vegetable mash as well – for example, as a condiment for meat, or mixed into soup or stew.
2. You can eat it, as is – a combination of mashed vegetables and liquid.
3. You can put the strained liquid into any convenient bottle and use it by the teaspoon or tablespoon, mixing it with water, juice, or tea. If you are feeling under-par, take as much as you can, as quickly as you can. Do not wait until you feel worse! Add it to water, juice or tea. Optionally, add some echinacea, elderberry syrup or any other herb you have found efficacious.
4. You can put the strained liquid into dropper bottles.
5. You can add healthy sweetener, such as maple syrup or honey or elderberry syrup, and keep it in the refrigerator.
6. You can start the tincture at a new moon and squeeze it out at a full moon.
7. You can use the liquid as a salad dressing. (Add oil to the salad first, if you like, or shake the tincture up in a jar with some oil and some herbs.)
How it works:
Ginger: among many other actions, ginger increases circulation to the extremities. It also is an anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, expectorant, decongestant, and a digestive aid,
Cayenne: increases circulation everywhere, is a digestive aid, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial
Horseradish: increases circulation to the head and increases sweating. It is also an antiseptic, digestive aid, and is nutritious.
Garlic: strong anti-virus, anti-bacteria and anti-fungal, anti-parasite. Also, expectorant and increases sweating.
Onion: similar to garlic, though less potent
Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!
About the Author: Cheryl
Very informative post. My husband and I are beginning to learn about home remedies and I think that this one should be at the top of our list.
Thanks so much for sharing this valuable information. I look forward to searching through more of your site for even more on the topics of home remedies.
Christine
Hi, Christine,
Immune tonic is certainly at the top of my list, along with a tincture of echinacea and 5% garlic and 5% cayenne. We use both of these at the earliest sign of illness.
I use garlic and Ginger all the time when preparing meals for my family. Some people get discouraged from using the garlic for breath issue but we always chew some fresh mint or parsley after our meal. It works like a charm to stop the garlic odor.
I am going to give it a try! I think I need this stuff at home. Colds have been my frequent visitors, and I hate being sick. I’m gonna be needing this one. Thanks for the tips!
Is it supposed to turn blue/green in 5 days?
Hi, Charlie.
The garlic has a bit of a blue-green cast. The other vegetables are varying shades of brown or tan or beige. The final liquid is a light brown color.
This is anecdotal, but no-one I know has ever failed to knock out the flu with this home remedy. The key is to take it IMMEDIATELY at the first indication of sickness.
I turned 75 last month and statistically should be laid low when catching a virus, but I have only been sick-in-bed one day during the 15 years we have used this all-vegetable tincture, and that was the one time I did not use it right away.
I put four droppers-full of immune tonic, three of Echinacea, some mint tincture to offset the taste and take 2000 mg. of vitamin C with it. I repeat every two or three hours, maybe four times, and that’s it.
One needs to determine their ideal dose. At the time of Y2K when there was a flu epidemic in LA, I had a co-worker friend who was terribly ill. He misunderstood my instructions and downed about 4 oz! He turned beet red and had the mother of all hot flashes. A half hour later he was feeling fine.
Yes we had a blender and also a kitchen. But it was a close space with three bedrooms and the garlic really took over!
Those are good ideas you have about the eye dropper and salad dressing. One person I knew handled it by using the immune tonic like a dip for his potato chips. I have found you get through a lot of immune tonic that way, but you have to watch it on the chips if you are a woman, because you can gain a lot of weight with those things.
Annas last blog post..Psychiatric Medications
Pros and cons. Another con is the garlic breath. What is that, anyway? I’ve heard one idea that garlic is so health-giving that it causes your body to start to de-toxify, which occurs by means of the organs of elimination: colon, kidneys, liver, skin and LUNGS! Thus, garlic breath. What do you think?
Yes, I have made it many times. My mother taught me to make it. I used to make it in a dormitory environment and I became very unpopular amongst my room mates because the whole place smelled of garlic. But anyone who was sick would come to me.
Annas last blog post..Psychiatric Medications
You are very resourceful to make it in a dorm! Did you have a blender available? People have different responses to this mixture. Some actually love it. Some hate it, but will take it if ill. Some use it regularly for salad dressing. (After coating the salad greens with oil, just sprinkle this on, as you would vinegar.) A way to use the tonic that I’ve found effective is to use an eye dropper to place drops directly on a sore spot in your throat. I’ve found that if I wake with a sore throat starting in the middle of the night, this direct application cures it by morning.
Has anyone made this tincture?
Great and thanks for all the explanations. Yes I do know what paprika is and no I can not take it so I will check with this Dr, Schulz. and see what he says.
Erikas last blog post..How Do You Deal With Water Retention Weight Gain
If I might add something – “paprika” is a word which is often misunderstood by Europeans and used to mean “pepper” as in “sweet peppers.”
What Cheryl means is not pepper, but paprika. So if there is any uncertainty on what paprika is, it can be looked up in a dictionary. I just wanted to make sure it’s understood that it isn’t the same thing as “peppers.”
And also – raw vinegar – it is also raw. Ie, uncooked. Correct? Usually you can find organic apple vinegar in local shops (Erika, I’m pretty sure the one down the street has it) but I don’t know if it’s raw.
Whenever I have not been able to find the perfect vinegar I have used the closest I could find. Like organic apple or organic unfiltered apple, etc. This might be horrible and blasphemous but for me it was sometimes better than nothing.
Annas last blog post..Psychiatric Medications
Thanks, that’s very helpful about the meaning of paprika. You are right about the vinegar. Ideally it would be completely raw (uncooked, and undistilled) and unfiltered (so the “mother” is still in it) and organic. However, if you had nothing but non-organic distilled apple cider vinegar, the tincture could still be made, and the vegetables would still give their substance into the vinegar. So it would be much, much better than nothing. The same goes for the quality of the vegetables. Just use the best quality you can get. Organic, wonderful! Farmer’s market or local garden, better than commercially sprayed, even if the farmer doesn’t use completely organic means. Unknown origin? Better than nothing. If the vegetables might have been sprayed, be sure to remove the peel, since toxins are concentrated there, and can even be transmitted inside by way of your knife. Before peeling, soak the whole vegetables in something that can help detox them, like non-toxic plant-based soap, or hydrogen peroxide, vinegar or even lemon juice. You’ll remove any bacteria from the surface at the same time. (Any of these should be diluted with water.) If you have to use lower-quality materials, take some extra vitamin C to help with any toxins or bacteria left over and take a larger quantity of the tonic, since it won’t be as strong.
Quite a tonic :)! Two questions; I can not have cayenne (one kidney not functioning and cayenne creates a shock in my system) can I replace it with something else or just leave it out altogether? With raw vinegar so you mean 100% vinegar?
Erikas last blog post..Your Figure, Hips and Thighs
1. Can you eat paprika? It contains a smaller amount of capsaicin (the compound that gives hot peppers their hotness). Perhaps you could substitute that way. Better still, I suggest you ask your question of Dr. Richard Schulze. Ask in regard to his Super Tonic, which contains these same basic ingredients. He is an amazing herbal doctor with great insight. 2. Yes, the liquid is all vinegar for this particular tincture.
Is it true that the vinegar should also be raw?
Another good way to take lots of immune tonic is to use it as a dip for potato chips or corn chips (strained or unstrained.)
Its not the best diet food, but it does make it easier to take a lot of it when needed. You can use it straight or you might try mixing it in with other things to create a dip.
Annas last blog post..Psychiatric Medications
Yes! Raw vinegar has in it mother of vinegar which is a cloudy substance that should not be filtered out, for health reasons.