Botanical name: Artemisia absinthium

Family: Compositae

Absinthium, absinthe wormwood, wormwood, common wormwood, green ginger or grand wormwood

The origin of the name Artemisia comes from goddess Artemis, since she was considered the protector of the Virgins, who were given a special formulation of this plant to combat hysteria or as an emmenagogue.

Plant Description

Artemisia absinthium is a herbaceous, perennial plant with fibrous roots. The stems are straight, growing to tall, grooved, branched, and silvery-green. The leaves are spirally arranged, greenish-grey above and white below, covered with silky silvery-white trichomes, and bearing minute oil-producing glands. Its flowers are pale yellow, tubular, and clustered in spherical bent-down heads (capitula), which are in turn clustered in leafy and branched panicles. Flowering is from early summer to early autumn; pollination is anemophilous. The fruit is a small achene; seed dispersal is by gravity.

It grows naturally on uncultivated, arid ground, on rocky slopes and at the edge of footpaths and fields.(wikipedia).

Constituents

The chief constituent is a volatile oil, of which the herb yields in distillation from 0.5 to 1.0 per cent. The herb also contains the bitter glucoside absinthin, absinthic acid, together with tannin, resin, starch, nitrate of potash,vitamins A, B1, B2, C and more.

THERAPEUTIC ACTIONS & USES IN OUR DAYS

MODERN STUDIES and PUBLICATIONS

Artemisia or mugwort acts as a bitter tonic stimulant - particularly helpful against the falling sickness and flatulence. It can be used when we need a digestive stimulant (enfeebled digestion and debility). The bitter substances which contain volatile oils, stimulate the secretion of digestive fluids and therefore mugwort is recommended when we lose our appetite. It has mild stimulating action which helps in cases of depression and reduces tension, due to the existence of volatile oil, so be careful not to lose this component in the preparation of the infusion. Mugwort also can be used as an emmenagogue as it helps normalize menstruation. It is also used for diabetes mellitus, obesity, febrifuge, anthelmintic and rickets.

The use of the herb dilates blood vessels, lowers blood pressure and reduces swelling in urinary retention.

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