Propolis Extract
Starting with the best possible material possible will make the biggest difference in the quality of the resulting product. This means clean fresh propolis, whether your trapping or scraping your propolis make sure it’s free of paint, debris, and dead bees. Once clean, to keep the propolis fresh, store it in the freezer. This will prevent the volatile compounds in the propolis from breaking down and it will make it easier to work with in a brittle state. Then, with the aid of a coffee grinder, we can easily grind it into a fine, frozen powder. To keep things simple, use food-grade alcohol, you can purchase 95 or 96% grain alcohol in many states.
the strength of Propolis tincture is described by the % of propolis. Usually 10, 20, or 30%. The percent is referring to the amount of propolis in the solution compared to the amount of alcohol in the solution, by weight. The following recipes are a guideline that will get close to a target percent in solution but if you want an exact number, the only way to do this is to evaporate some of the tinctures and weigh the resulting solids, we can discuss this at the end of the article.
Ingredients
30% Propolis Tincture - 350 grams 95% grain alcohol to 150 grams frozen propolis powder
20% Propolis Tincture - 400 grams 95% grain alcohol to 100 grams frozen propolis powder
10% Propolis Tincture - 450 grams 95% grain alcohol to 50 grams frozen propolis powder
Instructions
Combine ingredients into a wide-mouth jar with plenty of headspace to better facilitate agitation of the materials by shaking on a daily basis.
Between agitation keep in a dark and cool location as heat and light will break down the compounds we are trying to capture.
Continue this for 10-21 days, most of the research says 14 days showing only a minimal increase in extraction when waiting as long as six months.
Pull the clean tincture off the top with a syringe and strain the remaining material when complete.
Strength
Now that you have made your tincture you may want to know its strength. The amount of propolis in the solution is determined by evaporating 2 ml of the extract to dryness. To do this, take 2 milliliters of the solution and place it on a clean surface to dry. Once dry the remaining solids can be weighed, 2 milliliters of ethyl alcohol weighs 1.57 grams so the formula is (100/1.57) X evaporated weight = % Or simply 63.69 X evaporated weight of propolis in grams.
For example, I took 2 milliliters of a tincture I started 4 days ago and let it dry on a plate. Once dried the residue was scraped off the plate and weighed, it totaled .2 grams. Our formula now reads 63.69 X .2 which equals 12.738 or rounded up to 12.74. I can now say this tincture is currently 12.74% propolis solution.
Refining
Once the propolis tincture is complete we can refine it one step further by evaporating or boiling off all the alcohol. The boiling point of ethyl alcohol is 173.1° so using a double boiler to boil the alcohol off will be the fastest way but the heat will cause some degradation to the volatile compounds in the propolis so use the lowest temperature possible. The resulting propolis will easily incorporate into any other recipes we may have for creams or soaps. If you are not using this propolis right away store it in the freezer to keep it fresh