Here is a bare-bones guide to the basic alchemy process in DR.

On July 20th, 2013, the Remedies system was released. All notes on this page will now reference that system.
An archive of the pre-2013 notes can be found here.

Below are my notes, information pulled from GM Kodius posts & an basic guide to preparing a remedy. I do suggest that you keep an eye over on the Elanthipedia pages for updated information on this system if you don't find what you need here.

• Go here for an overview of the alchemy tools. For an overview of each specific remedy with preparation notes go here.
• For a chart of the herbs & catalysts and how to prepare them go here.

useful syntax:

• You can COMBINE prepared herbs and remedies.
• MARK <item> at # then you can BREAK <item> to separate amounts out. This works on raw & prepared items.
• Water and Alcohol can be combined with COMBINE WATER or COMBINE ALCOHOL. They must be put into a container and poured out to separate.
• You can DRINK and APPLY remedies from inside a container. Note that topical remedies can be used with RUB or APPLY, but only APPLY will work out of a container.

catalysts:

While foraging a quality herb to use as the basis for your remedy is important and you should strive to use 99 quality items where possible, the catalyst you choose is what will have the most overall affect on your finished product. When deciding which catalyst to use, there are a few factors to consider:

• Potency - Magnitude of the healing. Every single point has some impact on the calculation, so there are no hard cutoffs. Potency is reduced when healing multiple wounded areas. Potency also drops every time the remedy pulses.
• Efficacy - How long the remedy lasts. Again, every single point has some impact on the calculation, but extended testing will have to be done to reveal this.
• Solubility - The amount of time in between pulses.
• Toxicity - The extent to which using a remedy increases your systemic toxicity. This will build and eventually cause penalties.
• Workability - How difficult or easy an item is to use. The higher the number, the easier to work with. This can be compensated with the Curative Specialization technique.
• <value> - Not relevant to the healing properties of a remedy, this may be a consideration if you are interested in work order payout from the Society Master.
• <weight> - Burden can always become a problem, and it is worth keeping in mind.

The various catalysts are as follows (elanthipedia list here). You can APPRAISE CAREFUL to see the numeric specifics of each type (or go to the epedia link), I have summarized the pro's and con's of each type below.
Note on Efficacy: After more testing, I am still feeling that the longer the remedy lasts, the better. However, I have not yet done comprehensive research on how well (or poorly!) the last few pulses of a remedy work. While it looks like you only get an initial hit of toxins when you first DRINK/RUB your remedy, if those last pulses aren't doing anything, it may be that we want to shoot for a mid-range efficacy so you can re-apply your remedy sooner. So, in my notes below, while I currently consider a high Efficacy good, that could turn out to be a CON if it looks like those last pulses are just building toxins but not offering notable healing.

It is also of note that you can combine 2 matching remedies that were made using different catalysts to customize the end result as well. The end result will be an average of the items combined.

• coal:
  • PROS: found pretty frequently via mining & purchased at Society halls, so easy to acquire. With a workability of 50, pretty easy to use. Moderately strong healing pulses & moderately long duration in the system. Moderately low toxicity.
  • CONS: very low solubility so long times between pulses. Very low appraisal value.
  • KS SUMMARY: an excellent training catalyst, but not great for work order payouts, can be found with low cost and minimum trouble. A decent overall catalyst, doesn't really stand out being good or bad with any particular feature. Might be a good catalyst for general overall healing remedies.
• electrum:
  • PROS: Excellent potency, will give strong wound healing each pulse. Most soluable catalyst, will give the shortest time between pulses. High appraisal value.
  • CONS: infrequently found via mining, so no consistent way to gather. Moderately difficult to work with. Very short duration in your system with a moderately strong level of toxicity build.
  • KS SUMMARY: poor training catalyst but very good for work order payouts when you can get it. Supply problems aside, this should make for a good heavy wound remedy catalyst, where you need short & powerful bursts of healing. With a lower toxicity than pewter, it could be used sparingly with other remedies, but would not be good for frequently used remedy solutions.
• muracite:
  • PROS:
  • CONS: found via mining, more frequently than niniam or electrum, but still uncommon so no consistent way to gather.
  • KS SUMMARY:
• niello:
  • PROS: Moderately potent with a decent amount of time in your system. Fairly low toxicity. Extremely high appraisal value.
  • CONS: found only through auction, festivals, quests, etc. and then only in small quantities, so supply is a serious deterant. Very difficult to work with. Very short duration in your system.
  • KS SUMMARY: not good for training or work orders due to rarity. The low toxicity + high solubility is a nice pairing, but I speculate this catalyst will be useful for things other than common workbook remedies. Suggest "hoarding" this item at this time.
• niniam:
  • PROS: good potency, will give a solid wound healing pulse each time. Lowest level of toxicity of the catalysts. Highest appraisal value of the catalysts.
  • CONS: infrequently found via mining, so no consistent way to gather. Very difficult to work with. Moderately short duration in your system with very long stretches between pulses.
  • KS SUMMARY: poor training catalyst but the best for work order payouts when you can get it. Supply problems aside, should make for a solid catalyst to use in "maintenance" remedies when the user is working to stay ahead of bleeding (so on scuffs, scratches, bruising, etc.); good healing each pulse, can use more of these before toxins build to dangerous levels.
• orichalcum:
  • PROS: Very potent, will have strong healing pulses and will be in the system fairly long with fairly short time between pulses. Moderately toxic. Very high appraisal value.
  • CONS: found only through auction, festivals, quests, etc. and then only in small quantities, so supply is a serious deterant. Most difficult catalyst to work with.
  • KS SUMMARY: not good for training or work orders due to rarity. While this has the potential to make an excellent "general use" remedy that can be kept active in the system, the supply and rarity is a serious issue. Suggest "hoarding" this item at this time.
• pewter:
• PROS: commonly found via mining then smelting & purchased from Society halls, so decently easy to acquire. The easiest catalyst to work with. Has high potency, so will pulse strong each time, a high solubility, so will pulse frequently & a high efficacy, so will stay in the system awhile.
• CONS: is the most toxic catalyst, so will build toxins very quickly with use. Low appraisal value.
• KS SUMMARY: a good training catalyst, but not great for work order payouts. The toxicity is a problem for making all your end-use remedies with, but this would be a good catalyst for "emergency" remedies where you need to reduce a wound, poison, etc. quickly to avoid imminent death.
• seolarn weed:
  • PROS: found via foraging year round with low ranks, so free & easy to acquire. With a workability of 50, also pretty easy to use. Has a moderately high efficacy, so will stay in the system awhile.
  • CONS: very low potency, so is not going to have a strong pulse of wound healing when used, a moderately high solubility, so will take awhile between healing pulses and a moderately high toxicity, so will build toxins with use fairly quickly. Low appraisal value.
  • KS SUMMARY: an excellent training catalyst, but not great for work order payouts, can be found with no cost and minimum trouble, however it doesn't have enough desireable qualities to use for end-product use.

water & alcohol:

• As of February 2014, alcohol can be purchased from all Alchemy Society buildings, barber shops and most Alchemy Supply shops. It is not yet player made.
• COMBINE WATER/ALCOHOL to group water together, POUR water PART/HALF/MOST/ALL into a container to separate amounts.
  • note: prepared potions, tonics, etc. can not be POURed, only via COMBINE can you consolodate them. You can however MARK & BREAK them to separate into smaller groups.
• There are also many containers available into which you can FILL from natural water sources around Elanthia. 
  Go here for water locations

Other notes of interest:

• Check out Oramiwe's beautiful and informative study on the Art of Making tea.
• Mastercrafting a recipe requires 20% less parts per finished piece. So, if you start with 25 of your base herb and master-craft something, you will end up with 6 parts. If you want to end up with 5 parts, start with 20 of your base herb.
• When foraging your own herbs, forage <item>, forage <item> careful, forage <item> precise all yeild 99 quality/potency <item>'s when you have enough outdoorsmanship to find them with a minimum RT. When you collect <item>, the quality/potency will be a random result qualified by your skill.
• Not all herbs were updated, only the ones directly used with the new system. GM Kodius has indicated he will be updating other foraged items later, likely when he works on Wood conversions.
• Another command that is very helpful is TILT MORTAR which will destroy whatever is in the mortar and stop the process.

Step-by-Step Overview:

The following guide is assuming you have already properly prepared the herb(s) needed for your remedy, either via drying or crushing.

1. Turn your Remedies Book to the correct chapter and page, then STUDY BOOK
2. MARK & BREAK the herb needed for your remedy. (note: if you are able to masterfully-craft this, MARK at 20 to end up with a 5 count result, otherwise MARK at 25)
3. Put the herb in your bowl/mortar and:
   • mix bowl with mix stick
     • or
   • crush <herb> in my mortar with pestle
4. You now watch for a series of messages that can be used to improve your result (or ignored if the end result is of no consequence). The following list starts with the action you should perform, followed by the start of the messaging. At any time, you can ANALYZE the item in your bowl/mortar to see which action to proceed with as well:
• TURN - Once finished you notice clumps...
• PUSH with SIEVE - Upon completion you see some particulate
• PUSH with SIEVE - thick froth
• SMELL - As you finish, the mixture begins to transition colors
• PUT WATER - splash of water
• PUT ALCOHOL - splash of alcohol
• PUT <HERB> - You need another prepared herb
• PUT <CATALYST> - You need another catalyst
5. You will repeat the above possible steps multiple (8-12) times in random order until you have completed your remedy. Most will have a roundtime associated with them, with the exception of adding the WATER/ALCOHOL & CATALYST steps.
6. Once complete, you can MARK your remedy with a maker's mark stamp, ANALYZE it to see what the final quality and general information & APPRAISE CAREFUL to determine the final qualities of the remedy.