History

• Taking a dose of spring tonic every year is a folk-based practice rooted in regional tradition. According to The Mountain Laurel, a newsletter based in Appalachia, "The tonics were usually bitter, foul tasting concoctions," but everybody had to take a dose.
  
  

Function

• The leaves of the violet give a spring tonic Vitamin C.violet flower image by Piotr Markowski from Fotolia.com
  
  Folk wisdom dictated that a spring tonic would get the blood flowing, invigorate the system, and tone up the muscles. In fact, many ingredients found in spring tonics are herbs that have medicinal and nutritional properties, such as violet leaves, high in Vitamin C.
  
  

Types

• Spring tonics can be a combination of herbs and other organic substances. One recipe calls for dandelion roots and leaves steeped in water to make a tea. Other spring tonic ingredients include anise seed, blue violet, burdock root, fennel, licorice root, red clover, and Oregon grape. Some people mix in honey or molasses to hide the bitter flavor.
  
  

Effects

• Pluck some fennel from your garden to add to your spring tonic.greenery of dill, fennel flower image by Jelena Voronova from Fotolia.com
  
  Since many spring tonics contain essential vitamins and minerals, they do have a positive effect on those who take them. Many people take herbal preparations on a regular basis to promote good health. These are often nothing more than spring tonics in capsule form.
  
  

Warning

• Would you like honey with that?series object on white - flower tea with teapot image by Aleksandr Ugorenkov from Fotolia.com
  
  Spring tonics may call for potentially toxic ingredients such as sulfur. The best strategy is to substitute a non-toxic ingredient or minimize the measurement you include in your spring tonic.