Ban Zhi Lian Tincture & Alcohol-Free Extract

Ban Zhi Lian (Scutellaria barbata), the barbed skullcap, is a low perennial of the mint family, Lamiaceae, native to southern and central China, Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, where it grows in wet meadows, paddy margins, and stream banks. It rises 15 to 35 centimeters from a short creeping rhizome, with square stems, small oval to triangular, bluntly toothed leaves, and a one-sided spike of blue-violet two-lipped flowers about a centimeter long whose upper lip carries the small helmet-like crest typical of the genus. The Chinese name, half-branch lotus, refers to the flowers all facing one way along the stem. We extract the dried herb.