China Root Tincture & Alcohol-Free Extract

China Root (Smilax china), known in China as Ba Qia, is a deciduous climbing vine of the greenbrier family, Smilacaceae, native to China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, where it scrambles through hillside scrub and forest edges. Its wiry, zigzag stems reach 1 to 5 meters, armed with scattered hooked prickles and climbing by paired tendrils, with round to broadly oval, leathery, glossy leaves 3 to 10 centimeters long. Small yellow-green flowers in umbels are followed by clusters of bright red berries in autumn. The rhizome is a hard, knobbly, irregular tuber, reddish-brown outside and pinkish-white inside, bland and slightly astringent. We extract the dried rhizome.