Damiana

Damiana is the herb of the warm south — a small aromatic shrub with bright yellow flowers that grows on the dry hillsides of Mexico, the Caribbean and the southern reaches of Texas, its leaves releasing a spiced scent close to chamomile when crushed. Her reputation is old and remarkably constant: the peoples of old Mexico knew the leaf as a love potion, the ancient Maya kept her in their pharmacopoeia, and the claim survives in the plant's former botanical name itself — Turnera aphrodisiaca. She has long been used to rekindle desire, to lift the low and heavy in spirit, and to warm the body toward joy. In the nineteenth century the leaf crossed into Western pharmacy: damiana entered the first National Formulary of the United States in 1888 as an elixir and fluid extract, and remained listed until 1947. In her homeland she never left the table — the leaf still flavours the traditional liqueur of Baja California, poured into the local margarita in Los Cabos to this day. Hermetically she belongs wholly to Venus — the herb of warmth, desire and the joy of the body. The tincture of the warm south, in collector's glass.