Zi Cao Tincture & Alcohol-Free Extract

Zi Cao (Lithospermum erythrorhizon) is the purple gromwell or red-root gromwell, a perennial of the borage family, Boraginaceae, native to China, Japan, Korea and the Russian Far East, where it grows on dry grassy slopes and in open thickets. It rises 40 to 90 cm on roughly hairy stems with alternate, narrow lanceolate leaves and small white, funnel-shaped flowers in leafy terminal clusters, followed by hard, glossy, greyish-white nutlets. The thick taproot is deep purple-red from shikonin and has been a traditional dye source for purple silk in Japan. We extract the dried root.