Plant Alchemy: Our Lloyd Extractor at Work
At Eclectic Herb, we believe in honoring the past while shaping the future of herbal medicine. That’s why we still use a rare and remarkable piece of equipment called the Lloyd Extractor —a custom-built herbal extraction system designed to preserve the delicate balance of plant constituents while creating some of the most potent glycerites on the market.
This amazing device is part of a legacy, it was born from the minds of a visionary eclectic physician during the golden age of herbal medicine in the early twentieth century, designed to serve healers who demand the very best from their herbs.
Let’s take a closer look at the history, the method, and why our Lloyd-extracted glycerites stand apart.
An Invention Born from Eclectic Herbalism
The Lloyd Extractor is named after its inventor John Uri Lloyd, an influential figure in American herbal history who started to put the science down behind herbs. A 19th-century pharmacist, chemist, and herbalist who was fascinated with the amazing healing properties that plants provided, Lloyd was part of the Eclectic medical movement —a group of physicians who blended the best of traditional, scientific, and herbal medicine.
Frustrated by the crude and often inconsistent methods used to make botanical extracts in his day, Lloyd sought to refine the process. He wanted a method that could preserve the integrity of the plant, concentrating and maintaining its full spectrum of active compounds, without using heat. He also wanted to set standard for quality, at that point in time all manner of "snake oils" were abound and purported "cure-alls" offered for every ailment with dubious compounds, against this backdrop, Lloyd wanted consistency and herbal remedies that actually worked.
The result of his labor? A cold-percolation method with precise temperature control, adapted to preserve even the most sensitive herbal constituents. That’s the heart of the Lloyd Extractor.
"The real magic is in the method. Slow, intentional, and rooted in plant wisdom."
Eclectic’s Lloyd-Extracted Glycerites:
- Made with fresh, potent herbs sourced locally
- Crafted using the Lloyd Extractor for full-spectrum strength
- Alcohol-free yet surprisingly powerful
- Small-batch and intentional, rooted in herbal tradition
- Tasty, potent, and truly effective
Typical Alcohol-Free Extracts:
- Often made from bulk, dried herbs of unknown origin
- Rely on basic maceration methods that miss key compounds
- Gentle, but often weak and incomplete
- Mass-produced with little attention to quality or process
- Sweet, but often lacking in noticeable results
Not All Glycerites Are Created Equal
Most people think a glycerite is just a gentler, alcohol-free version of an herbal extract. But here’s the truth:
Typical glycerites are made with plain glycerin. They're sweet and kid-friendly—but often weak. Glycerin alone just can’t pull out all the plant’s beneficial compounds, especially the heavier or more complex ones.
Alcohol extracts are potent. Alcohol is a powerful solvent that can extract nearly everything—but it’s not ideal for everyone. Kids, sensitive individuals, and anyone avoiding alcohol are often left out.
So how do we do it differently?
We start with fresh, locally grown herbs, harvested at their peak for maximum potency. To unlock the full spectrum of active plant compounds, we first extract in organic alcohol —the most effective solvent for deep herbal extraction. Then, using our custom-built Lloyd Extractor cold still, we gently remove the alcohol, preserving strength without the burn.
The result?
A rich, alcohol-free glycerite that’s both powerful and gentle —safe for kids, effective for adults, and crafted with care in every small batch.
"Crafted with care, guided by tradition, powered by plants—that’s our kind of alchemy"
How the Amazing Lloyd Extractor Works
Curious how we create our potent, alcohol-free herbal extracts?
In this short video, go behind the scenes with our custom-built Lloyd Extractor —a piece of herbal history still used in our lab today.
See how we gently remove alcohol through cold distillation, preserving the full spectrum of the plant without heat or shortcuts.
👉 Watch now and discover the alchemy behind our glycerites. Also be sure to give us a like and a follow!
The Victorian Age: When Eclectics Raised the Bar
In the mid-to-late 1800s, America was awash in tonics, elixirs, and bitters. Traveling salesmen hawked miracle cures from wagons and drugstores bottled their own secret recipes. Some of these remedies were effective. Others? Not so much.
The truth is, it was the golden age of snake oil mixed in with legitimate remedies. Lax regulations meant that many so-called “natural remedies” were spiked with opium, mercury, or arsenic. Labels promised to cure everything from headaches to heartbreak—but there was little science behind most of it.
In mainstream medicine, Doctors practiced bloodletting, prescribed toxic compounds, and dismissed plant-based remedies as unscientific—while offering treatments that often left patients worse off than when they began.
Yet at the same time, a deeper current was stirring. There was growing curiosity about the healing power of plants. Botany, chemistry, and pharmacy were rising as academic disciplines, and with them came a push to understand and refine the way herbal remedies were made and used.
Even major pharmaceutical companies took notice. By the late 1800s, companies like Eli Lilly began manufacturing and distributing herbal tinctures, fluid extracts, and powders — right alongside chemical drugs.
Much of the extraction process remained crude and poorly understood and there were no universal standards for potency, purity, or preservation. This is where the Eclectic Physicians stepped in.
Who Were the Eclectics—and Why They Still Matter
Eclectics were trained medical doctors who rejected the bloodletting and toxic compounds of their day in favor of botanical remedies that were gentler, safer, and more effective. The Eclectics believed in choosing the best from all healing traditions "eclecticism", but only if it helped—not harmed.
More than that, they brought scientific rigor to herbalism:
They documented case histories
Wrote thousands of pages of materia medica
Conducted clinical observations
And demanded consistency, quality, and proof.
One of the movement’s most brilliant minds was John Uri Lloyd, a pharmacist, chemist, and inventor who helped standardize and preserve the art of botanical extraction. His work ensured that herbal remedies could be measured, studied, and trusted —not just passed down as anecdotal tradition.
At Eclectic Herb, we honor this legacy in name and in practice—using tools like the Lloyd Extractor , which was born out of this tradition of integrity, innovation, and plant-based healing.
The Eclectics believed that plants held the keys to healing—and that the way we prepare those plants matters.
We couldn’t agree more.
The Author : Christine Alstat
Meet Chris Alstat, an internationally acclaimed naturopath and herbalist of Japanese heritage, whose profound expertise in plants and natural health has garnered recognition worldwide. As the dedicated owner of Eclectic Herb, Chris seamlessly intertwines her deep-rooted commitment to the Earth with her business, cultivating a space where her passion for plants is ever in full bloom. Her influential voice on herbal wisdom resonates across the globe through publications and panels, reflecting a lifetime commitment to nurturing both the plant kingdom and the earth.
