Parrot’s Beak

This herb is widely known and loved here in the Northwest, but less well-known elsewhere. It is a beautiful plant of the snapdragon family, with tall spikes of exotic and elaborate yellow or cream flowers.

Parrot’s Beak is an excellent nervine and calmative, even a strong sedative in large doses. It is used for anxiety and emotional distress, especially if that distress has caused insomnia and exhaustion, for which it would combine well with Ashwagandha for long-term rebuilding.

As a nervine and calmative, Parrot’s Beak is a great herb to help with quitting smoking, one of its more common uses among our friends and acquaintances.

Parrot’s Beak has strong muscle-relaxant properties, useful for all types of cramps. It is also very helpful as an adjunct to bodywork, so that the body is relaxed enough to allow deep work without pain or resistance, also preventing the muscles and ligaments from re-setting into their pre-bodywork patterns of unhealthy alignment.

We have found Parrot’s Beak to bring a very peaceful and at ease feeling, what herbalist Michael Moore calls a “safe but peculiar goofiness”. There are worse states to be in!