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| Latin: |
Herba Artemisiae |
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| Origin: |
Sweet wormwood refers to the whole herb of the annual plant Artemisia annua L., of the family Asteraceae/Compositae. The plant is grown in southeast Europe and west Asia. It is widely distributed everywhere in China.
Wormwood, bitter or aromatic, is an herb or shrub that is distributed throughout many parts of the world. These plants have many small, greenish yellow flower heads grouped in clusters. The leaves are usually divided and alternate along the stem; they may be green, grayish green, or silvery white.
There are other species of wormwood: the leaves of the common wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), probably the best-known species, have been used in medicines and such beverages as absinthe. Common wormwood is native to Europe but has become naturalized in Canada and the United States. The leaves of the tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus), another well-known species, are employed as a seasoning, and those of the mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) are often used to flavour beverages.
The plant Artemisia annua grows to 40 to 150 cm at a fast rate. The scented flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by insects. The plant requires well-drained soil and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It is in flower from August to October; in fruit from October to November.
Reaped in summer and autumn, the herb is used when fresh or dried in the shade, cut into sections and included in preparations.
Also known as Sweet Sagewort. |
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| Properties: |
| Bitter and pungent in flavor, cold in nature, it is related to the liver, gall-bladder and kidney channels. |
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| Functions: |
| Alleviates fever of the deficiency type, relieves hectic fever, removes summer-heat and prevents attacks of malaria. |
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| Applications: |
1. To treat impairment of yin by pathogen-warmth and night fever with morning chills:
Use it with turtle shell, windweed rhizome (Rhizoma Anemarrhenae), tree peony root-bark, etc., e.g., Qinghao Biejia Tang.
2. To treat fever due to yin deficiency and consumptive or hectic fever:
Use it with starwort root (Radix Stellariae), picrorhiza rhizome, windweed rhizome (Rhizoma Anemarrhenae), turtle shell, etc., e.g., Qinggu San.
3. To treat fever and headache with thirst due to affection by summer pathogenic factors:
Use it with weeping forsythia fruit (Fructus Forsythia), tuckahoe (Poria cocos), talcum, rice-paper plant stem pith (Medulla Tetrapanacis), etc.
4. To treat malarial chills and fever:
A larger dose of the fresh herb can be blended alone into juice for drinking or the herb can be used in combination with cassia bark, skullcap root (Radix Scutellariae), talcum, indigo, etc., in accordance with the symptoms. |
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| Dosage and Administration: |
3-10 g.
Decoct the herb and the other ingredients for drinking. It is not recommended that this herb be decocted for a long time. It can also be blended into juice for use when fresh. |
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| Cautions on Use: |
It should be avoided by those deficient in spleen-yang or suffering from diarrhea due to asthenia of the large intestine.
Skin contact with the plant can cause dermatitis or other allergic reactions in some people. |
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| Reference Materials: |
The Compendium of Materia Medica : "To treat malarial chills and fever."
Newly-Compiled Materia Medica : "Reducing summer heat."
The Summary of Medical Works : "Treating jaundice and ailments due to stagnated fire by clearing damp-heat away from the blood." |
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| Toxic or Side Effects: |
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| Modern Researches: |
Sweet wormwood contains artemisinin, artemisinin A, B, C, D, E, artemisic acid, artemisi-tene, methyl artemisinate, artemisinol, as well as volatile oil, in which there are artemisia ketone, isoartemisia ketone, cuminal, caryophyllene, etc.
As reported in Plants for the Future, clinical trials have shown that artemisinin as an antimalarial ingredient is 90% effective and more successful than standard drugs. In a trial of 2,000 patients, all were cured of the disease.
Both the raw herb and artemisinin can inhibit the development of plasmodia so as to kill them directly. They also have certain antihypertensive, antipyretic and dermatomyce-inhibitory effects. The volatile oil has antitussive, expectorant and antiasthmatic effects.
The seeds are used in the treatment of flatulence, indigestion and night sweats.
The plant is used in China as a medium for growing aspergillus which is used in brewing wine.
The substances mentioned above in the medicinal uses, used in the treatment of malaria, also show marked herbicidal activity.
The plant yields 0.3% volatile oil. This has an agreeable, refreshing and slightly balsamic odour and has been used in perfumery. The volatile oil in sweet wormwood can also protect gastrointestinal organs and the liver.
For self protection, the outer skin (bark) of many plants contains volatile oil, which in turn has elements that serve as an immediate chemical defense against herbivores and pathogens. How? There is an element called hydroxynitrile glucoside in volatile oil. This element will release toxic hydrogen cyanide by endogenous plant glucosidase upon tissue disruption (see Anne Vinther Morant, Kirsten Jorgensen, Charlotte Jorgensen, Suzanne Michelle Paquette, Raquel Sanchez-Perez, Birger Lindberg Moller, and Soren Bak, "beta-Glucosidases as Detonators of Plant Chemical Defense," Phytochemistry Vol. 69, Issue 9 (June 2008), pp. 1,795-1,813).
Glucosidase is a catalyzing enzyme that improves healthy functions of our body. It is a lipase that decomposes fat; it can also check inflammation and improve memory (see Mikako Sakurai, Masayuki Sekiguchi, Ko Zushida, Kazuyuki Yamada, Satoshi Nagamine, Tomohiro Kabuta and Keiji Wada, "Reduction in memory in passive avoidance learning, exploratory behaviour and synaptic plasticity in mice with a spontaneous deletion in the ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 gene," European Journal of Neuroscience Vol. 27, Issue 3 (February 2008), pp. 691-701).
The Japanese wormwood (Artemisia japonica) of the same genus is also used in the same way as sweet wormwood in some areas of China, with similar effects. |
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