| Artemisia absinthium | |
|---|---|
| Artemisia absinthium growing wild in the Caucasus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Asterids |
| Order: | Asterales |
| Family: | Asteraceae |
| Genus: | Artemisia |
| Species: | A. absinthium |
| Binomial name | |
| Artemisia absinthium L.[1] |
|
Artemisia absinthium (absinthium, absinthe wormwood, wormwood, common wormwood, green ginger or grand wormwood) is a species of wormwood, native to temperate regions of Eurasia and northern Africa.
It is a herbaceous, perennial plant with a hard, woody rhizome. The stems are straight, growing to 0.8-1.2 m (rarely 1.5 m) 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; the basal leaves are up to 25 cm long, bipinnate to tripinnate with long petioles, with the cauline leaves (those on the stem) smaller, 5–10 cm long, less divided, and with short petioles; the uppermost leaves can be both simple and sessile (without a petiole). 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.
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The plant can easily be cultivated in dry soil. It should be planted under bright exposure in fertile, mid-weight soil. It prefers soil rich in nitrogen. It can be propagated by growth (ripened cuttings taken in March or October in temperate climates) or by seeds in nursery beds. It is naturalised in some areas away from its native range, including much of North America.
The plant's characteristic odor can make it useful for making a plant spray against pests. It is used in companion planting to suppress weeds, because its roots secrete substances that inhibit the growth of surrounding plants. It can repel insect larvae when planted on the edge of the cultivated area. It has also been used to repel fleas and moths indoors.
It is an ingredient in the spirit absinthe, and also used for flavouring in some other spirits and wines, including bitters, vermouth and pelinkovac. In the Middle Ages, it was used to spice mead.[2] In 18th century England, wormwood was sometimes used instead of hops in beer.[3]
Wormwood is the traditional colour and flavour agent for green songpyeon, a type of dduk / tteok (Korean rice cake), eaten during the Korean thanksgiving festival of chuseok in the autumn. Wormwood is picked in the spring when it is still young. The juice from macerated fresh (or reconstituted dry) leaves provides the colouring and flavouring ingredient in the dough prepared to make green songpyeon. The other traditional color for these small desserts is white, made with rice flour dough without wormwood extract.
It is also an additional ingredient to mint tea in Moroccan tea culture.
The leaves and flowering tops are gathered when the plant is in full bloom, and dried naturally or with artificial heat. Its active substances include silica, two bitter substances (absinthin and anabsinthine), thujone, tannic and resinous substances, malic acid, and succinic acid. It is used medicinally as a tonic, stomachic, antiseptic, antispasmodic, carminative, cholagogue, febrifuge and anthelmintic. It has also been used to remedy indigestion and gastric pain. Wormwood tea is used as a remedy for labor pain. A dried, encapsulated form of the plant is used as an anthelmintic.[2] Extracts of the plant have shown to exhibit strong antimicrobial activity, especially against Gram-positive pathogenic bacteria. [4]
A wine can also be made by macerating the herb. It is also available in powder form and as a tincture. The oil of the plant can be used as a cardiac stimulant to improve blood circulation. Pure wormwood oil is very poisonous, but with proper dosage poses little or no danger.[5] The oil is a potential source of novel agents for the treatment of leishmaniasis.[6]
Artemisia comes from Ancient Greek ἀρτεμισία, from Ἄρτεμις (Artemis).[7] In Hellenistic culture, Artemis was a goddess of the hunt, and protector of the forest and children.
Absinthium comes from Ancient Greek ἀψίνθιον (apsinthion)/ἀσπίνθιον,[7] underlain by a pre-Greek Pelasgian word, marked by the non-Indoeuropean consonant complex νθ. Alternatively, it might possibly mean "unenjoyable", and probably refer to the bitter nature of the derived beverage. Consider the following quote by Lucretius in De Rerum Natura, I, 936-8:
The word "wormwood" comes from Middle English wormwode or wermode. The form "wormwood" is influenced by the traditional use as a cure for intestinal worms. Webster's Third New International Dictionary attributes the etymology to Old English wermōd (compare with German Wermut and the derived drink vermouth), which the OED (s.v.) marks as "of obscure origin". An alternative explanation dubiously combines the Old English wer, meaning "man" (as in "werewolf"), with Old English mōd, meaning "mood".
Wormwood is mentioned seven times in the Jewish Bible and once in the New Testament, always with the implication of bitterness.