Practical Alchemical Guide II - The Lesser Circulation vol. II
Oh bother I messed up the title. Practical Alchemical Guide III, sorry.
In our previous chapter we discussed the harvesting and collecting of medicinal flora and their respective parts. In this entry we will learn the ways in which the aforementioned higher and lesser/positive and negative kingdoms become relevant.
The chosen herb has its essence extracted much like making yourself a cup of tea, in that it is steeped either in your chosen alcohol, or in a purified water bath. The "feces" left over, as we'll call them, can be moved from the liquid bath and now be considered a separate, essence-less entity. You can leave your liquid essence to sit and steep as long as you like for now. We'll now place the residue into a calcinator; if you do not own a clacinator I suggest either buying one, or ensuring your cookware can withstand long-term flame. Burn the residue until it is a black ash, and further still until the ash becomes a pale grey. The grey ash can then be moved to a mortar and ground finely with a pestle. This is our salt, separate from its initial essence. From here the practicing alchemist can decide if they want to work with elixirs (salts and purified water) or with potions (salts and tinctures). I've included a diagram below to illustrate how each piece fits into our positive-negative structure. Do not fear, working in negative salts does not mean you are working closer with the daedra lords or anything of that nature (though Mauloch would not mind if some calcinated ash were set aside in reverence).
It should be noted that the essence you derived from your herbs will be the same no matter what, so long as you are still within the herbal kingdom. What makes each different, what grants you either levitation or death, is the difference in the salts (the residue). The elusive nirnroot has proven this to be somewhat trivial in that its essence is almost always a strange shade of blue, but it is an outlier.
It is the reintroduction of these salts in proper proportion to the essence, that produces the many potions you'll find in your average chironasium or apothecary. Although there is no decent way to teach alchemy without a physically present mentor, I've included the steps to create a single restorative potion, using ingredients I'm sure are in your back yards.
Potion of Restore Health
The two herbs we'll be using for this potion are the root pulp of the columbine, and the flower from a water hyacinth (which I always recommend keeping on hand, if only because exploring the shore will often deliver you nirnroot).
Many people will tell you only to use the nectar but I say otherwise. Separately, leave each herb to soak in your chosen alcohol (I prefer brandy or a nice old wine) and remove once a sufficient amount has steeped. Again in separate spaces, macerate both herbs and place one at a time (or into separate vessels) into your calcinator, and allow one to burn and pale completely before the other. They should ignite easily and instantly since they are full of alcohol. Once each has produced a sufficiently pale salt, take one spoonful of each and mix the two together in your clay or glass crucible. Add just enough of the alcoholic essence to cover the salt mixture, and stir until dissolved. Congratulations, you've just created your first potion. Of course any of these can be formed on the fly by throwing a ground salt into a small vial of water, for use in the field, but this is a quality product.