Banaba Tincture & Alcohol-Free Extract

Banaba (Lagerstroemia speciosa), the giant crepe myrtle or pride of India, is a deciduous tree of the loosestrife family, Lythraceae, native to the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Southeast Asia, and planted as a street tree across the tropics. It grows 10 to 20 meters with smooth, flaking, mottled grey bark and large, leathery, oblong leaves 10 to 25 centimeters long that turn red before falling. In summer it carries upright panicles of showy, crinkled, six-petaled flowers that open mauve-pink and fade to purple, followed by round woody capsules. In the Philippines the leaves are dried and brewed as a household tea. We extract the dried leaf.