Chaga, Inonotus obliquus, is a fungus. It is a parasitic on trees, mainly birch trees, and grows in forests in the Northern Hemisphere.

Chaga has been part of traditional folk medicine in Russia, Poland, China and other Baltic countries for centuries. In Asia, it was historically used to help with longevity, youthfulness and promote health.

Many will grind down the hard Chaga and use it to make a tea or coffee. It has a kind of sweet/bitter taste.

Chaga is very high in antioxidants, more so than blueberries.

Medicinally, Chaga is known to help with:

• reducing fatigue
• mental sharpness
• cancer
• lowering blood sugar levels
• lowering blood pressure
• lowers cholesterol
• diabetes
• stress
• brain fog
• liver support
• inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBS)
• ulcerative colitis

I use the folk method for making all my tinctures, which uses no measurements except sizing things up with your eyes. So I put the plant material in a jar and then fill with alcohol.

Dosages -

Dosages for children are not provided in most herbals. To determine the correct dose you need to consider the size of the child, the ailment, the power of the herb you intend to use, and the adult dosage.

Young's Rule for determining dosage uses the child's age divided by twelve plus the age. The dosage for a 4 year old: 4/12+4 = 4/16 = 1/4 of the adult dose.