About Witch Hazel

"Distilled from the bark and twigs of the witch hazel plant or Hamamelis virginiana, a shrub distinguished only by its habit of blooming in November, witch hazel has been used for hundreds of years to treat everything from bug bites to hemorrhoids. Originally an herbal remedy brewed by New England’s Native Americans, the liquid’s never since gone out of production. Missionaries and early white settlers were said to have learned the secret of brewing the twigs to produce a rubbing lotion to treat “sprains, neuralgia, rheumatism, bruises, piles and hemorrhages,” according to 1915 Dickinson product label. Today the clear, fragrant, naturally astringent liquid is used to treat dozens of conditions and is included as an ingredient in hundreds of cosmetics and over-the-counter medications, including shaving lotion, sunburn cream, deodorant, headache remedies, hair rinses, and salves for cuts and insect bites. Elizabeth Arden, Estee Lauder, Avon, and Revlon are among the cosmetics firms that use Connecticut’s witch hazel. It is also found, for example, in the toothpastes and mouthwashes made by Tom’s of Maine and in pharmaceutical-grade products manufactured by the Pfizer Company.

Witch hazel’s principal producers for the past century, the E.E. Dickinson Company and its offshoots, have been located in Connecticut since Dickinson’s founding in the late 19th century. For almost 150 years, their production of witch hazel has survived competition from rival “patent medicine” manufacturers and from foreign producers, the advent of federal Pure Food and Drug laws in 1906 and 1938, Prohibition, and the Great Depression, when small manufacturers of all kinds went out of business. Today Dickinson Brands, now part of American Distilling in East Hampton, Connecticut, produces nearly all the witch hazel used throughout the world—millions of gallons accounting for annual revenues whose dollar amount is a closely guarded company secret."  https://www.ctexplored.org/witch-hazel-connecticuts-wonder-shrub/