Yerba Santa is an evergreen aromatic shrub with woody rhizomes, typically growing to a height of 3 to 4 feet (1 m +) The dark green, leathery leaves are oblong to lanceolate and covered with shiny resin. They grow in an alternate arrangement and are pinnately veined and usually serrate.
How do you identify yerba santa?
Sticky, yellow-green new-growth stems produce lance-shaped, 2- to 6-inch-long, usually hairless leaves. These toothed or smooth-edged leaves are dark green, sticky, and glossy above with hairs between the veins that form a net-like pattern on their lighter-colored undersides.
What does yerba santa do for you?
Yerba santa is an herb. The leaf is used to make medicine. Yerba santa is used for respiratory conditions including cough, cold, tuberculosis, asthma, and long-term swelling (inflammation) of the airways in the lungs (chronic bronchitis). It is also used for fever and dry mouth.
Is there another name for yerba santa?
Other Name(s): Bear's Weed, Consumptive's Weed, Eriodictyon, Eriodictyon californicum, Eriodictyon glutinosum, Gum Bush, Gum Plant, Herbe des Montagnes, Herbe à Ourse, Herbe Sacrée, Herbe Sainte, Hierba Santa, Holy Herb, Holy Weed, Mountain Balm, Sacred Herb, Tarweed, Wigandia californicum.
What is yerba santa used for spiritually?
Traditionally used as a smudge or incense for protection and setting boundaries, Yerba Santa has also been used for love, purification, growth, empowerment and beauty, and the release of emotional pain stored in the heart chakra. Uplifting scent.
What does yerba santa smell like?
The flavor and smell of Yerba Santa is complex, sweet yet bitter and and feels medicinal and 'thick. ' It invokes something magical and indescribable, and is hard to put into words.
Is yerba santa sacred?
Yerba Santa is a flowering shrub native to Southwest America and Northern Mexico. It is considered to be a sacred herb in Native American and Spanish cultures, where it is regularly used for protection, courage, purification, and healing.
Is yerba santa caffeinated?
Yerba maté is one of the world's most effective and healing beverages with over 196 active compounds which shadows the active compounds found in Green tea (Camellia sinensis) which has about 144. This tea is untreated and contains no filler or flavoring agents, just pure organic yerba maté leaves. Contains caffeine.
Where does yerba santa grow?
Yerba Santa is native to the western and southwestern regions of North America, and is somewhat native to northern Mexico. It grows 2-6 feet in height at elevations ranging from 2000 to 3,500 ft. It is typically found in dry areas that are sparse of other vegetation.
What is a holy leaf in Mexico?
Hoja Santa (pronounced O-hah SAN-tah) is an herb commonly used in the cuisines of central and southern Mexico to flavor many savory dishes. The term hoja santa means "sacred leaf" in Spanish, but this herb also goes by several different names, including yerba santa, Mexican pepperleaf, and root beer plant.
What does burning mugwort do?
The smoke from burning mugwort can also be used as a treatment. It is thought to help a wide range of conditions, including urinary, musculoskeletal, and inflammatory issues, among others.
Is Yerba Santa mint?
Yerba buena or hierba buena is the Spanish name for a number of aromatic plants, most of which belong to the mint family.
What is Yerba incense?
Yerba Santa (Eriodictyon californicum) from the United States is often used as an incense or smudge for protection and setting of boundaries. The uplifting scent is also used for purification, love, empowerment, growth and beauty.
Is yerba santa caffeinated?
Yerba maté is one of the world's most effective and healing beverages with over 196 active compounds which shadows the active compounds found in Green tea (Camellia sinensis) which has about 144. This tea is untreated and contains no filler or flavoring agents, just pure organic yerba maté leaves. Contains caffeine.
What does yerba santa mean?
sacred herbYerba santa or hierba santa (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈʝeɾβa ˈsanta]), meaning "sacred herb" in Spanish, can refer to: Hoja santa (Piper auritum) Species of the genus Eriodictyon, including Eriodictyon californicum and Eriodictyon crassifolium.
What is yerba santa made of?
The yerba santa plant is an evergreen aromatic shrub that is indigenous to the hills and mountains of California, Oregon, and northern Mexico. It often is cultivated as an ornamental shrub. The hairy, lance-shaped leaves are glutinous, and its flowers are white to lavender in color.
How do you make yerba santa?
Yerba Santa is best as a tea, tincture, or syrup. The herb may also be prepared externally as a poultice, wash, or bath. Use 1 Tablespoon of tea per cup of water. Steep for approximately 35 minutes, strain and enjoy.
What is Yerba Santa?
Yerba santa is an herb. The leaf is used to make medicine.
Does Yerba Santa cause urination?
Yerba santa contains chemicals that are thought to loosen mucus in the chest and may increase urination.
Does yerba santa work?
Yerba santa might have an effect like a water pill or "diuretic.". Taking yerba santa might decrease how well the body gets rid of lithium. This could increase how much lithium is in the body and result in serious side effects. Talk with your healthcare provider before using this product if you are taking lithium.
Is yerba santa safe for breast feeding?
Pregnancy and breast -feeding: There isn't enough reliable information to know if yerba santa is safe to use when pregnant or breast-feeding. Stay on the safe side and avoid use.
Is Yerba Santa safe to eat?
Side Effects. When taken by mouth: Yerba santa is LIKELY SAFE when eaten in amounts commonly found in foods. But there isn't enough reliable information available to know if yerba santa is safe when taken in the amounts found in medicines or what the side effects might be. When applied to the skin: There isn't enough reliable information available ...
Can you take yerba santa with lithium?
Talk with your healthcare provider before using this product if you are taking lithium. Your lithium dose might need to be changed. The appropriate dose of yerba santa depends on several factors such as the user's age, health, and several other conditions.
What is Yerba Santa?
Yerba Santa ( Eriodictyon) refers to a genus of shrubs belonging to the family of Boraginaceae which is native to North America. It is commonly found in the southwestern region of the United States in California, Oregon, and Northern New Mexico where it flourishes in climates with hot, dry summers and mild winters. Some species of the Eriodictyon genus can be found as far as the Midwest United States, with a few in the Northeastern region of the United States.
What are the most common types of Yerba Santa?
Yerba Santa is a term that is used loosely, and many people associate the term with only the Californian Yerba Santa ( Eriodictyon californicum ), but there 16 species found in California. [ 6]
Why did the Spanish chew the leaves?
The Spanish missionaries at San Antonio Mission chewed or smoked the leaves to relive coughs, asthma, colds, stomachaches, headaches, joint pain, and to purify the blood. They also applied the sticky, mashed leaves to skin wounds and sore muscles. Yerba Santa was specifically used to treat rheumatism by burning the branches and leaves in steam baths. [ 4]
What makes a bush silver?
The white wooly hairs make the bush appear silver [ 6]
Is yerba santa bitter?
Yerba Santa has been used a bitter flavoring additive to foods and is safe in small amounts. Though it has been used traditionally for thousands of years, Yerba Santa hasn’t been the subject of many clinical studies, and data on its safety is relatively scarce.
Does Yerba Santa help with congestion?
As an expectorant, it is a possibility that using Yerba Santa to help clear congestion can be so efficient that it may over-dry nasal and lung passages. This is common with all expectorants, including pharmaceutical and over-the-counter expectorants.
What family is Yerba Santa?
Yerba Santa has been put into the Borage plant family alongside familiar members to some: Comfrey ( Symphytum spp.), Borage ( Borago officinalis), and Alkanet ( Alkanna tinctoria) for you natural dyers. Most members of this plant family have a distinct Scorpian like unfurling inflorescence (group of flowers), especially when the flower stalk is young. The corolla (group of flower petals) is often bell shaped or tube-like, with five lobes. The leaves tend to be longer and lance-like. Many members of this plant family have irritating hairs like Comfrey, but Yerba Santa does not. It seems like there are some mixed feeling about how this plant family exists as a group of plants with commonalities, and whether Yerba Santa lies here or in another family. I have read that it was placed in the Waterleaf (Hydrophyllaceae) family at one point, which is now considered a subfamily under the Borage family. This comes down to if new scientific studies favor those botanists that 'split' vs. those that 'join' things together.
Where is Yerba Santa?
Yerba Santa in Yosemite National Park, at a site post fire, winter 2018.
Is yerba santa good for allergies?
Literally, Yerba Santa was perfect for my exact condition. It is a great decongestant, specifically for drying up overwhelming and annoying moist respiratory secretions that can be on hyperdrive during the constant mast-cell irritation of the seasonal allergy inflammatory response. Its interesting to think about now that I have been hung out with Yerba Santa in the west, an incredibly dry environment most of the year. Even during the rainy season, the air does not have the thick moist quality that the eastern air has during Spring and Summer. I attach this plant's drying effect and high concentration of resins to the dry and tough environment, on top of where Yerba Santa prefers to live. In the South, I noticed issues of folks not being able to 'dry out' and the bogginess of Spring allergies is hard to combat with many regional native herbs (this is not a rule or anything, and there are plenty of useful herbs out there, especially ones that you can grow in your garden for this purpose) in the way that Yerba Santa can.
Can you make a syrup from a leaf?
As a syrup or elixir, you can combine a decoction of the leaf with an infusion of the leaf in honey along with other herbs to make an amazing allergy or asthma relief syrup. James Green published an amazing book on medicine making techniques here.
Is Yerba Santa bitter?
The flavor and smell of Yerba Santa is complex, sweet yet bitter and and feels medicinal and 'thick.' It invokes something magical and indescribable, and is hard to put into words. It's drying but it doesn't feel overtly astringent or dry in the mouth, you just suddenly realize awhile after ingesting the herb that your face feels calm again (ha!).
Is Yerba Santa a sacred herb?
Yerba Santa means ‘holy herb’ in Spanish. Historically it has been used by Native American cultures to cure a range of ailments from coughs and colds, to asthma and bruises. It was also used in traditional smudging practices and rituals to increase a person’s connection with a higher power, as it works to open the crown chakra.
Other names for Yerba Santa
Yerba Santa has been known by numerous names throughout history including Gum Bash, Holy Herb and Mountain Balm. Its Latin name, Eriodictyon is derived from the Greek phrase ‘woolley net’ due to the silky, fuzzy texture on the underside of its leaves.
7 spiritual benefits of Yerba Santa
Yerba Santa has been considered a sacred herb throughout history and for good reason! Below are 7 ways you can use this versatile herb in your own life:
Yerba Santa smudging prayer
To increase the power and effectiveness of any smudging ceremony or meditation practice, consider adding a prayer to solidify your intentions. Here is an example of a beautiful native American prayer to encourage spiritual growth and inner confidence:
Points to bear in mind
Even though Yerba Santa has been used for centuries as a herbal remedy for a range of ailments, it has yet to be the subject of many clinical trials so data on its side effects are a little scarce. Still, it is considered a safe herb to use unless you are pregnant because it can affect iron absorption in the blood.
Conclusion
Yerba Santa is an incredibly sacred herb with a range of uses from medicinal to spiritual. If you are ever feeling lost or despondent in life, this herb will help you to find the power within yourself to go after your dreams, and will assist you in finding your true purpose.
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What family is Yerba Santa in?
Yerba Santa is an exceptional member of the Waterleaf Family (Hydrophyllaceae) which also contains Phacelia, Baby Blue Eyes and Fiesta Flower. Most of these family members grow in cool, moist habitats, indicating a strong relationship to the watery element.
Where does Yerba Santa grow?
Yerba Santa is native to the western and southwestern regions of North America, and is somewhat native to northern Mexico.
What is Yerba Santa essence?
Yerba Santa flower essence is indicated for those who hold in the water element, especially manifest in the emotions of grief, melancholy, depression or despair.
