Damiana (Turnera diffusa) — the wild one who tames, companion of desire

Damiana

Infused for two, in the evening, in the warmth of Tlazolteotl's baths.

To walk through griefTo open the heartTo hold a circle

1 · The form

2 · The amount

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✦ Damiana · in one breath ✦

She keeps company with the desire that wakes and warms the lower belly — the horizontal heart.

Ritual

⊹ The path of the plant

Cautions

✷ Cautions

Pregnancy and the wish to become pregnant: Damiana exerts a light but real uterotonic action, documented in animal pharmacology. To be avoided during pregnancy and during the window in which you are trying to conceive.

Breastfeeding: Insufficient data. Avoid as a principle.

Antidepressants (MAOIs, SSRIs, SNRIs, tricyclics): Damiana inhibits MAO-B and modulates the GABA-A receptors. She can potentiate or work against these treatments. Avoid, or seek medical advice before any combination.

Diabetes: Light hypoglycaemic action documented in animal pharmacology. Increased monitoring if blood sugar is already fragile; space her out from oral hypoglycaemic drugs.

Bipolar disorders: Light dopaminergic effect (MAO-B inhibition). Caution.

Scheduled surgery: Stop taking damiana two weeks before an operation.

Cycles of use: Not every day. Three times a week at most; a three-week cure then a week's pause, around three cures a year. The plant asks for windows.

Legality: Freely available in France, in the European Union and in Mexico.

If in doubt: your doctor before the plant. This page documents a lineage, not a medical protocol.

⊹ Community voices

What the community murmurs.

All reviews (82) →

4.9/5

Average · 82 reviews

Breakdown

5 ★78

4 ★3

3 ★0

2 ★0

1 ★1

Damiane has a spicy flavor, reminiscent of chamomile. It also has benefits that I don't deny myself, which makes the drink just as pleasant. Thank you very much for the much appreciated sample of Mexican Tarragon. I'll be back!

Túyyo

Ritual · 18 January 2024

A wonderful scent comes from these herbs. I am 100% pleased with its effects. Relaxing in the evening and good for sleep.

Food

Ritual · 5 August 2023

I mixed Damiana leaves into my smoking blend of stress relief/anti anxiety/lucid dreaming herbs - in addition - https://youtu.be/JJtDmftkzk8 and I feel a real difference, since Damiana was added. So that it why I ordered it for the second time. And delivery is really fast.

Mountain

Ritual · 6 December 2023

Very nice herb. Deeply relaxing and soothing.

Kaja

Ritual · 14 November 2023

Very happy with my purchase, thank you! Made a mix with blue lotus yesterday, asked the plant spirits for their medicine and wasn't disappointed :)

Charlotte

Ritual · 25 November 2020

Beautiful quality plant that has taken its place in my daily life

gaelle

Ritual · 13 October 2024

Products according to the description this plant is really stimulating

Anthony

Ritual · 10 March 2022

Love it - added to y smoking blend - it is such a beautiful touch !!!

Mountain

Ritual · 20 December 2023

I enjoyed this tea in the mornings

triece

Ritual · 7 September 2023

I can feel the love on each package and trying this certainly gave me an open heart boost. Thank you 🙏🏼

Myna

Ritual · 13 May 2022

I got into the habit of using it daily

gaelle

Ritual · 19 July 2024

Read all 82 reviews →

⊹ ASK YOUR QUESTION ⊹

Ask the Forest about Damiana

408 books digested, 97,512 indexed passages. She answers on lineages, synergies, cautions, ritual variations.

⊹ FREQUENT QUESTIONS ⊹

We answer.

What is damiana?

Damiana (Turnera diffusa) is a small aromatic shrub of Mexico, plant ally of the Mexicas who named her mizibcoc, "she who makes the sun smile". Plant of the heart and the tenderness of the body, invoked in the name of the goddess Tlazolteotl, she is drunk as an evening infusion or smoked. INFUSE offers her as leaves, paste or powder, wild harvest from Mexico.

Is damiana really aphrodisiac?

She is one of the rare plant aphrodisiacs where tradition AND pharmacology converge (Rätsch). But the nuance is everything: she does not manufacture desire, she lifts what was blocking it. She relaxes, disinhibits, makes warmth circulate in the lower belly. Not an imposed excitation — a released inhibition. We promise no effect; we transmit a use.

How do I prepare a damiana infusion?

A teaspoon of leaves in a cup of simmering water (~80°C, never boiling — the oils evaporate), covered 5 to 10 minutes, then strain. The taste is soft, aromatic, slightly bitter, with notes of dried fig. Mexican tradition takes her at the end of the day, never in the morning.

Why do we never drink damiana alone?

It is the rule transmitted by Mexican curanderas — the "presence in twos". Damiana is a companion (cum-panis, the one with whom we share bread): always accompany her with another plant (rose, blue lotus, cacao) or another person. It is not a superstition, it is her grammar: a plant of relation, not solitude.

Can damiana be smoked?

Yes — the Mayas smoked her for relaxation, and she is an excellent smoking blend base to replace tobacco. Crumble the dried leaves, alone or with other herbs, for a gentle and aromatic smoke.

Damiana and cacao, the Maya love philtre?

Yes. The Mexicas already mixed damiana with xocoatl, the ceremonial chocolate of water and cacao, as a love potion. It is the accord of the two openings of the heart: cacao opens the vertical (upward), damiana the horizontal (toward the other, toward the body). Damiana leaves, grated cacao, rose petals, a drizzle of honey.

Leaves, paste or powder, which form of damiana to choose?

Whole leaves are the traditional way of infusion and smoke. The resin paste (a knife tip dissolved in a warm drink) and the powder extract (a teaspoon in warm plant milk) are concentrated and practical daily. For the ritual in twos, the leaves; for the quick evening tenderness, the paste or the powder.

Does damiana have precautions?

Yes. To avoid during pregnancy, desire for pregnancy and breastfeeding (light uterus-active action). Caution with antidepressants (she modulates MAO-B and GABA), in case of diabetes (light hypoglycemic action), before surgery, and in case of seizure history. To use in windows — three times a week maximum, not every day.

⊹ Chapter · Questions ⊹

Ask, answer, share.

One question, one answer — sometimes several voices. The community answers first; INFUSE steps in when it should.

⊹ The forest says ⊹

« Every plant is a door. Damiana opens onto a long companionship — listen to it more than you measure it. »

Essence

⊹ CHAPTER II · ESSENCE ⊹

Teacher of Sacred Play. Sensual delight. Sexy Muse. Priestess of Love and Intimacy.

The Mexica named her Mizibcoc — "the plant that makes the sun smile". Native to Maya and Aztec lands, Damiana carries innumerable accounts — awakened sexual vitality, released bodily tensions, deepened intimate receptivity.

Her feminine essence, young and wild, returns the body to her own nature and gently guides toward surrender — physical and emotional. When the mind or feelings waver, Damiana warms — she lets you feel, in spite of everything, the warm embrace of Life.

𖥸𖥸𖥸

On the path of self-love, Damiana lifts confidence and dissolves doubt — especially in intimacy. She teaches you to open the heart and to take the risk of truly feeling: to touch, and to be touched.

𖥸𖥸𖥸

The Maya mixed her with Cacao in ceremonial love drinks — a true Philtre. They also smoked her, in the evening, as a companion of breath and ease. And the Mexican curanderas transmit her by a simple, almost domestic rule: she is never drunk alone. Always in twos — two plants in the cup, or two presences around. It is a knowledge of threshold, not a chemistry of performance.

Damiana is an ally of women. The Mexicas called her mizibcoc, “she who makes the sun smile”, and folded her leaf into cacao. She wakes without crisping, loosens without putting out — an evening plant that gently extends what was already there, in the background.

Her delicate infusion suits almost any palate; she also makes a perfect smoking base, soft and clear. In twos, at the corner of the evening, in the hollow of a shared table — that is where she blossoms.

For those who want to find again the pleasure of being in presence.

Signature INFUSEIntensity · scored out of 10

Intensity · scored out of 10
loosened inhibition		10/10
presence as two		10/10
horizontal heart		9/10
warmth of the lower belly		9/10
evening companion-plant		9/10

Mexica · Guaycura of Baja California · Tlazolteotl · Mexican curanderas · ally of women — touch and be touched

Tradition

⊹ CHAPTER III · TRADITION ⊹

Damiana is documented among the Mexica from pre-Hispanic times, under the name mizibcoc. She enters into the xocoatl — the ceremonial chocolate of water, cacao and plants, where she sits alongside chilli, vanilla and yauhtli (Tagetes lucida). The Maya also include her in the *balché*, a ritual fermented drink made with the honey of Melipona bees and the bark of Lonchocarpus, drunk to enter the territory of the gods. The Mexican curanderas invoke her in the name of Tlazolteotl, Aztec goddess of earthly love, of sexuality and of forgiveness — a paradoxical deity who holds desire and absolution together. The pre-Columbian ritual use is attested in northern Mexico and in the Mayan regions since at least 1699 (Rätsch).

The oldest indigenous origin points back to the Guaycura of Baja California — a semi-nomadic people said to have been the first to use damiana, in sacred sexual ritual as much as in daily remedy. In the 17th century, a Spanish missionary reports that the Indians of Mexico prepared from her leaves a sweet drink "to increase their power of love". The plant then passes into the Western pharmacopoeia: adopted by the North American eclectic physicians at the end of the 19th century, entered in the United States National Formulary from 1888 to 1947 — fifty-nine years as an official plant, before being erased not by medical decision but by neglect, swept away by post-war pharmacochemistry. One of the rare plants to have crossed four centuries and two continents without losing her voice.

There is a rule, passed on by the Mexican tradition, that modernity has lost: the rule of presence in twos. Damiana is not drunk alone. Always accompanied — by another plant (rose, blue lotus, cacao), or by another person. This is not superstition: it is the very grammar of the plant. She is companion, in the literal sense. A plant of relationship, not of solitude.

Dale Pendell, in Pharmako/Poeia, places damiana among the companion plants — those presences that do not manufacture an experience but colour its edge. "She is neither a trigger nor a sedative. She is that discreet presence you sense at the corner of the evening." And that is precisely what Robin Wall Kimmerer's grammar names in academic language: in certain indigenous languages, the word for "plants" translates as "those who take care of us". Not resources — persons, presences to greet, to thank, to remember.

Preparation

⊹ CHAPTER IV · PREPARATION ⊹

INFUSE offers damiana in three forms: whole leaves, concentrated resin paste, powdered extract.

Form	Packaging	Gesture	Traditional marker	Temperature	Duration
Whole leaves	50 g · 100 g · 200 g · 1 kg	Covered infusion	~1 tsp per cup	Simmering water, never boiling (~80 °C)	5 to 10 min, covered
Resin paste	5 g · 10 g · 20 g · 50 g	Dissolution	A knife-tip (the size of a grain of rice)	Hot or warm drink (~50-60 °C)	Stir until dissolved
Powdered extract	5 g · 10 g · 100 g	Blending	~1 tsp	Hot plant milk or simmering water	Stir

Signature gesture — the covered infusion. Cover the cup while the damiana infuses: her essential oils, where the aroma and a part of the plant's spirit live, evaporate otherwise. Ten minutes for her to speak, ten minutes to drink her. The Mexican tradition takes her at the end of the day, never in the morning — she is a plant of the gentle evening watch, of the night coming down, not of the brisk gesture. And never alone: she is accompanied by a rose, a blue lotus, a cacao — or by a presence. For the ritual in twos, damiana leaves, grated cacao, a few rose petals and a thread of honey are readily brought together: an evening philtre, to be drunk slowly, in silence first and then in speech.

Suggested ritual

The ritual of presence in twos

For the evenings when you want to find the warmth of the heart again without forcing it — alone, coming back to yourself, or in twos.

Prepare the infusion covered — a teaspoon of leaves (or a tip of paste) in simmering water, cover, leave ten minutes. Meanwhile, do not fill the space with a screen: let the aroma of dried fig rise, and name what you have come to find again (a lost sweetness, a desire put out by fatigue, a tenderness to relight)
Invite a second presence — following the Mexican rule: another plant in the cup (rose, blue lotus, cacao), or another person in the room. Damiana is a plant of relationship
Thank her by name before the first sip — not out of mysticism, out of politeness. Mizibcoc, the one who makes the sun smile
Drink slowly, without haste — damiana does not push, she accompanies. Let the warmth go down into the lower belly, feel the inhibition loosen by itself, without looking for it
Hold the rhythm of the windows — three times a week at most, three weeks and then a pause. The body needs intervals to recognise the plant. Otherwise she becomes furniture, and stops speaking

You do not read a plant. You pay her a visit, and you sometimes come back changed. — INFUSE mantra, after the Mexican tradition

We answer.

What is damiana?

Is damiana really aphrodisiac?

How do I prepare a damiana infusion?

Why do we never drink damiana alone?

Can damiana be smoked?

Yes — the Mayas smoked her for relaxation, and she is an excellent smoking blend base to replace tobacco. Crumble the dried leaves, alone or with other herbs, for a gentle and aromatic smoke.

Damiana and cacao, the Maya love philtre?

Leaves, paste or powder, which form of damiana to choose?

Does damiana have precautions?

Form

Packaging

Gesture

Traditional marker

Temperature

Duration

Whole leaves

50 g · 100 g · 200 g · 1 kg

Covered infusion

~1 tsp per cup

Simmering water, never boiling (~80 °C)

5 to 10 min, covered

Resin paste

5 g · 10 g · 20 g · 50 g

Dissolution

A knife-tip (the size of a grain of rice)

Hot or warm drink (~50-60 °C)

Stir until dissolved

Powdered extract

5 g · 10 g · 100 g

Blending

~1 tsp

Hot plant milk or simmering water

Stir