First, and this may not sound very helpful, but I am of the opinion that it is a greater waste of money to spend half the amount of money on herbs and take them at a does or frequency that isn’t effective then to spend twice the amount on effective treatment. I do use powdered herbs on some patients. If there is FZ, then I get them to boil them longer, 30-45min, depending on the dose, as I’ve tried shorter boils on myself in powders and haven’t had serious toxicity, but have felt a restless jumpy feeling that I’ve noticed in bulk FZ when it’s on the edge of being under-boiled. Others may use shorter times, though. With minerals I either do the 30-45min boil (as I’m often using FZ with them), or if I want a shorter boil, then I’ve told them to just leave the herbs to stand for a longer period of time after boiling, and hour or so, this seems to work ok.