Centaury Tincture & Alcohol-Free Extract

Centaury (Centaurium erythraea), the common centaury, is a small annual or biennial of the gentian family, Gentianaceae, native to dry grassland, dunes, and open woodland across Europe, North Africa, and western Asia, and naturalized in parts of North America. It grows 10 to 50 centimeters from a basal rosette of pale green, oval leaves, with an erect, square stem that branches above into a flat-topped cluster of starry, five-petaled, clear pink flowers with yellow anthers; they open only in sunshine and close by early afternoon. The whole plant is intensely and lastingly bitter, like its gentian relatives. We extract the dried herb.