A full-bodied and delicious-tasting glycerite to support healthy digestion, the immune system, and general vitality. Holy Basil helps open the heart and mind.*
 
Holy Basil is highly respected in the Ayurvedic system of healing and around the world. This beautiful and aromatic plant strengthens and supports the health of the nervous, immune, respiratory, and endocrine systems. Deeply balancing, Holy Basil, also known as Tulsi, helps to generate vitality and well-being, in part due to its adaptogenic qualities. We love this plant for the way it supports mood and digestion. Holy Basil uplifts the spirit, brings clarity to the mind, balance to the body, and peace to the heart and home.
 
Many households in southern India tend a Holy Basil plant in their courtyard for divine protection and clearing negativity. This revered herb helps to open the heart and mind, inspire harmony and spiritual clarity, enhance feelings of love and compassion, and guide humans to live more consciously with reverence for all of nature.
 
Their Holy Basil Glycerite is richly flavored, aromatic, and completely alcohol-free.
 
Garden Notes: Hundreds of Holy Basil plants grace our Biodynamic gardens. These aromatic plants with delicate pink flowers grow to be lush and bushy and provide an abundance of leaves and flowers for our teas, glycerites, and tinctures. Each week throughout the summer, we hand-gather the fresh flowering tops amidst native bees and honeybees who also appreciate the medicine of this plant. Holy Basil's pungent fragrance uplifts our spirits and the energy of our gardens. We prepare this fresh glycerite (and our tincture) as quickly as possible after gathering. It's truly an honor that Holy Basil has come to the West from India, touching many people's hearts and minds.
 
Taste / Energetics: bitter, spicy, aromatic, sweet, fruity, warming, drying.
 
Actions: adaptogen, nervine, lung tonic, immune tonic, digestive tonic.
 
When to reach for it: For supporting mind, body, and soul; gently opening the heart; as a companion during plant spirit meditation, yoga, and other spiritual practices. To bring clarity to the mind and fill the heart with compassion. When you need an ally when gardening, traveling, and taking on a new project. For keeping on hand at work to help you stay heart-centered and grounded. To help navigate seasonal changes and when feeling out of balance.
 
Ingredients: Holy Basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum) leaf and flower†, Vegetable Glycerin^.
Suggested Use: Add 10-20 drops (.5-1ml) to 1 ounce of water 1 to 3 times/ day or as directed by your healthcare practitioner.
 
Avena Botanicals values simplicity and the traditional ways of hand-crafting herbal products. They use simple tabletop tools instead of large, mechanized machines and they do not mass-manufacture. 
 
This holistic and spiritually alive system of organic agriculture enlivens the soil, water, and plants along with the soul, spirit, and consciousness of humans. Biodynamic preparations and practices create herbal products that can benefit body, mind, and spirit and connect individuals to the source of their sustenance.
 
Since their inception in 1985, they have used no synthetic ingredients, additives, or solvents of any kind in their herbal products or farming practices. Their on-site production facility only uses 100% biodegradable cleaning supplies.
 
Avena's products are produced on-site in their custom-built facility. You can take an herb walk through their gardens in the summer, while seeing smellIing baskets of herbs and flowers going into the facility, it doesn't get any more local than this.
 
Creating gentle, organic, high-quality herbal products that promote good health is their goal. They produce their products in small batches to ensure that their freshness and efficacy meet their high standards.
 
Avena's gardens are open to the public for a few select events each year. They are a peaceful sanctuary for people (and pollinators) to enjoy, learn in, and experience the gifts of nature. They host a handful of herb walks, classes, and retreats each summer, often accompanied by refreshing botanical sun tea.
 
These values remain constant in their thoughts, words, and actions. They care deeply about the health and well-being of the people and plants they serve and take extra care as they harvest the herbs and create products.
 
Despite the modern world's technological advances, many people around our planet remain unhappy and disconnected from nature. Avena's peaceful gardens, retreats, and hand-crafted herbal products assist people seeking to live in harmony with nature and with the spirit that connects all living beings.
 
They aim to create a working environment that embodies balance, health, and wellness. They ring a bell at noon for any staff who chooses to stop and meditate for 5-10 minutes. Their weekly staff meetings are held outdoors in summer and in a room overlooking the garden in winter. As a staff, they share yummy potlucks, birthday cakes, inspiring books, and garden walks.
 
Avena Botanicals is the first Demeter Certified Biodynamic farm in Maine. Biodynamic agriculture is a holistic and spiritually alive system of organic and ecological practices and philosophies based on the teachings of Dr. Rudolf Steiner. One of the core beliefs and practices of Biodynamic agriculture is to help heal the Earth. 
 
Their hand-gathered herbs come into Avena's drying rooms and are immediately weighed and laid onto large screens. Most of these herbs are grown in Avena's three-acre gardens. They also collect a few herbs from nearby islands and meadows.
 
Over five hundred pounds of fresh, hand-gathered herbs come into Avena's apothecary annually and are thoughtfully prepared into herbal tinctures, elixirs, glycerites, and oils. Over 70% of these herbs come directly from Avena's Demeter Certified Biodynamic gardens. Their herbs are fresh, aromatic, sweet, bitter, pungent, and beautiful.
 
Avena's gardens have been purposefully planted with protective hedgerows and flowering plants that offer nectar and pollen to dozens of pollinators. Shimmering ruby-throated hummingbirds and various butterflies, honey bees and native bees fill our gardens with an array of colors, sounds, and personalities. The presence of pollinators fills hearts with joy and gratitude.
 
FDA Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.