Dipsacus Tincture & Alcohol-Free Extract

Dipsacus (Dipsacus asper), the Chinese teasel or Xu Duan, is a tall perennial of the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, formerly placed in its own family Dipsacaceae, native to hillside grassland and forest edges of Sichuan, Hubei, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Tibet in western China. It grows 1 to 2 meters with ridged, prickly stems, opposite, lobed leaves, and in late summer egg-shaped heads 2 to 3 centimeters long of small white to pale purple flowers packed among stiff, spiny bracts, like a smaller European teasel. The taproot is long, cylindrical, and slightly twisted, grey-brown with deep furrows outside and greenish-brown within, bitter and faintly sweet. We extract the dried root.