Yerba Santa Tincture

Traditional respiratory system support.

Yerba santa leaves warm and stimulate the respiratory system; reduce inflammation in the sinuses, throat, and lungs; and dry excessive secretions of the lungs or upper respiratory tract. Take the leaf tincture to relieve chronic asthma, bronchitis, or seasonal allergies accompanied by copious and easily expectorated mucus discharge, but keep in mind that yerba santa leaves can be very astringent. If taken in higher doses—more than about 45 drops—the drying effect may make your tongue feel like it’s been wrung out, but if taken in smaller doses, you will find that yerba santa first gently dries and then remoistens and refreshes the mucous membranes.

Yerba Santa frees the lungs and heart to acknowledge and release stored emotional experience. Yerba Santa (Spanish for “holy herb”) was regarded as sacred by the native peoples, because the process of awakening, and claiming deep soul experience leads to the indwelling Temple of the Spiritual Self. It is often in those places where the soul retains the most profound pain or trauma, that the strongest teachings of the Spiritual Self can also be realized.

The color and form of the Yerba Santa is truly a signature of these soul qualities—the delicate lavender flowers suggest a highly refined level of spiritual awareness. And at the same time the curving, tubular shaped flowers speak to a process of descent into the deepest parts of the soul temple. The insights of Matthew Wood, in “Seven Herbs Plants as Teachers” capture in a most touching way, these qualities of Yerba Santa:

The inner spaces defined by the body lining are “sanctuaries,” from which impurities must be kept. Perhaps it was an intuitive recognition of this which gave the plant its name: Yerba Santa…the internal body linings correspond with “psychic body linings.” Sanctity of psychic space is the internal property which Yerba Santa guards.

2 ounce