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Benefits |
Preparation |
Medicinal Uses |
Side Effects |
Plant |
Folklore |
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| Common Names |
| Wormwood , |
| Botanical Name |
| Artemisia absinthium L. |
| Family |
| ASTERACEAE or COMPOSITAE Sunflower family |
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Wormwood is used today mainly as a bitter tonic, and in natural pest control. The azulenes in the plant are anti-inflammatory and reduce fevers, and the plant was used in ancient times as an emmenagogue, but is no longer used that way.
Mabey, Richard ,40
As the name implies, wormwood is a powerful worming agent that has been used for hundreds of years to expel tapeworms, threadworms, and especially roundworms from dogs, cats, humans and other animals. Although wormwood makes like miserable for parasites, it is not kind to the host. .
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Prep Methods :infusions, tinctures
 Remedies using Wormwood
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 It is usually dark green, or sometimes blue in colour, and has a strong odour and bitter, acrid taste. The oil contains thujone (absinthol or tenacetone), thujyl alcohol (both free and combined with acetic, isovalerianic, succine and malic acids), cadinene, phellandrene and pinene.
This oil SHOULD NOT BE USED in any aromatherapy application |
 Tea made from an infusion of fresh or dried leaves, sweetened with honey, is a good spring tonic. Wormwood should only be steeped five minutes because of the bitter taste. |
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| Liver/Gallbladder | | The addictive, degenerative influence of absinthe killed wormwood's use as an herbal medicine, in a way that's too bad because two of its phytochemicals do stimulate digestion and the extract does improve liver and gallbladder function in people with liver disease. 458
(Duke, James A, Ph.D. ) | | Dewormer, traditional | | Wormwood is the classic dewormer, but it contains the toxic chemical thujone and should not be used for long periods, and taken internally only under the advice of a qualified herbalist. 881
| | Pest repellent | | This bitter herb has strong pest repellent properties, use as a companion plant in the garden, or infused in oil for topical skin applications. 963
| | Energy boost | | A group of herbs that pack a bitter taste, including the Artemisias wormwood and mugwort can help boost overall energy. Bitter herbs increase endoctrine function and improve digestive processes, many people experience a temporary boost of energy after a dose. 637
(White,Linda B., M.D. ) | | Arthritis | | Combined with rue, wormwood is a powerful antirheumatic treatment. 457
(Dawson,Adele ) |
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| Side Effects: |
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| Not for long term use, do not exceed recommended doses, excessive consumption could be toxic. Pregnant women should not take as it can cause uterine contractions. Wormwood can be used in those cases where quick parasite intervention outweighs the risk of toxicity, but with an abundance of caution and care. This is because wormwood contains an assortment of volatile oils, bitter principles and tannins that can be irritating to the kidneys, and in extreme cases may even damage the nervous system. The FDA lists wormwood unsafe for internal use. |
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Whole plant,1879,Millspaugh, Charles F.[88]
 This bitter, aromatic, frutescent perennial, attains a growth of 2 to 4 feet. Stem stiff, almost ligneous at the base and paniculately branched; branches of two kinds, some fertile, others barren. Leaves alternate, 2 to 3 pinnately parted, finely pubescent with close silky hairs, the uppermost lanceolate, entire; leaflets oblong or lanceolate, obtuse and entire, sparingly toothed or incised. Inflorescence in long, leafy panicles; heads numerous, small, heterogamous, on slender nodding pedicles; involucre canescent; bracts of two kinds, i to 2 loose, narrow, herbaceous ones, and several that are roundish and scarious; florets many, all discoid, the central hermaphrodite, the marginal pistillate. Corollas tubular glabrous; limb nearly entire in the marginal florets, 5-toothed, and spreading in the central. Style 2-cleft, in the marginal florets bilamellar, with the inner surfaces stigmatic, in the central bifurcated with only the tips stigmatose, fringed or fimbriate. Anthers tipped with an acuminate appendage, not inflexed. Receptacle flattish, beset with long woolly hairs; akenes obovoid or oblong; pappus none. Charles F. Millspaugh American Medicinal Plants (1892)
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 Wormwood has been used in medicine from ancient times. Dioscorides and Pliny considered it to be a stomachic tonic, and anthelmintic. Boerhaave, Linnaeus, Haller, and all of the earlier writers speak of its good effects in many disorders, such; as, intermittents, hypochondriasis, gout, scurvy, calculus, and hepatic and splenic obstructions. The famous " Portland powder," once noted for its efficacy in gout, has this drug as its principal ingredient. A decoction has ever been found a most excellent application for wounds, bruises, and sprains, relieving the pain nicely in most cases; every reader will recall "wormwood and vinegar" in this connection. Latterly it has been found diuretic, discutient, and antispasmodic in epilepsy.
The bitterness of the herb is communicated to the milk of cows who may browse upon it, and also to mothers' milk if the drug be taken.
Charles F. Millspaugh American Medicinal Plants (1892) |
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 This is a martial herb, and is governed by Mars. This is the strongest; the Sea Wormwood is the second in bitterness, and the Roman joins a great deal of aromatic flavour, with but a little bitterness: therefore, to acquire and enjoy the full powers they possess, they must be separately known and well distinguished, for each kind has its particularly virtues. Nicholas Culpeper |
 According to the Ancients, Wormwood counteracted the effects of poisoning by hemlock, toadstools and the biting of the sea dragon. The plant was of some importance among the Mexicans, who celebrated their great festival of the Goddess of Salt by a ceremonial dance of women, who wore on their heads garlands of Wormwood. The genus is named Artemisia from Artemis, the Greek name for Diana. In an early translation of the Herbarium of Apuleius we find:
'Of these worts that we name Artemisia, it is said that Diana did find them and delivered their powers and leechdom to Chiron the Centaur, who first from these Worts set forth a leechdom, and he named these worts from the name of Diana, Artemis, that is Artemisias.
(Grieve, M.)
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Annies Remedys
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