How was wormwood used?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

November 3, 2003

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Various wormwoods (Artemisia species) were the standard treatment for stomach problems (tonics for poor digestion), recurring agues (fevers), cleansing obstructions and "naughtie humours" from the liver, and for intestinal round worms. One species or another of wormwood was part of the materia medica of ancient Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, and China. Soldiers down through the centuries took wormwood as protection from 'pestilence'. (The Herbal, John Gerard, 1633 edition)

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Pliny the Elder preferred the Pontic wormwood (Artemisia pontica Linnaeus) over either the Santonic or Italian wormwoods (species undetermined). He mentions, "...the Pontic from Pontus (Black Sea), where cattle fatten on it..." Apparently the wormwood prevented skin lesions on cattle, "...and so are found without gall."

Pliny recommended wormwood "taken on voyages averts sea-sickness; worn under a cummerbund it prevents swelling of the groin. It promotes sleep if inhaled or secretly placed under a patient's head. [C]ompounded with ointment and rose-oil, dyes the hair black."

Much of wormwood's uses Pliny recorded were preventatives against pests. Sprigs of wormwood "amongst clothes...keeps off moths....mixed with oil, wormwood drives away gnats when the body is rubbed all over with it...when ignited, its smoke repels gnats. Ink mixed with wormwood protects writings from mice...."

Wormwood's affect on the digestive tract was known to the Romans. "With sil (ocher, yellow earth), nard from Gaul and a little vinegar, it removes bile, is a diuretic, soothes the bowels, expels worms...and counteracts nausea and flatulence." ("Book XXVII", Natural History, Pliny the Elder, 1st century, translated John F. Healy, Penguin Books, 1991)

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Wormwood (A. absinthium or A. pontica) is an ingredient in absinthe, the most controversial liqueur in history. A French doctor, Pierre Ordinaire, invented the liqueur as a tonic in the 1790s. By the fin-de-siècle, the end of the 19^th century, people were frequently self-medicating with the liqueur or a copycat tonic purchased at pharmacies. Unfortunately, chronic consumption of the monoterpene, thujone, in wormwood caused "absinthe alcoholism" and the neurological disorder "absinthe epilepsy". ("Absinthe", Wilfred Niels Arnold, Scientific American, June 1989)

The Physician's Desk Reference has an article on wormwood, Artemisia absinthium. To learn more about this herb, click on the link:

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Herbal extracts are not the same thing as essential oils. Never take essential oils internally.

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