Artemisia absinthium
Absinthe Museum garden, Auvers-sur-Oise, France
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Artemisia
Species:
A. absinthium
Binomial name
Artemisia absinthium
Synonyms[2][3]
List
  • Absinthium bipedale Gilib., not validly published
  • Absinthium majus Geoffr.[2]
  • Absinthium majus Garsault, not validly published
  • Absinthium officinale Lam.[2]
  • Absinthium officinale Brot.
  • Absinthium vulgare (L.) Lam.
  • Artemisia absinthia St.-Lag.
  • Artemisia arborescens var. cupaniana Chiov.
  • Artemisia arborescens f. rehan (Chiov.) Chiov.
  • Artemisia baldaccii Degen
  • Artemisia doonense Royle
  • Artemisia inodora Mill.
  • Artemisia kulbadica Boiss. & Buhse
  • Artemisia pendula Salisb.
  • Artemisia rehan Chiov.
  • Artemisia rhaetica Brügger

Artemisia absinthium, otherwise known as common wormwood, is a species of Artemisia native to North Africa and temperate regions of Eurasia,[4] and widely naturalized in Canada and the northern United States.[5] It is grown as an ornamental plant and is used as an ingredient in the spirit absinthe and some other alcoholic beverages.

Etymology

Wormwood's relative mugwort was traditionally used as a remedy for a variety of complaints, especially those of a gynaecological nature, and so the wormwood genus bears the name of the Greek goddess of childbirth, Artemis.[6] The specific name derives from apsínthion, the Greek term for the plant.[7]

"Wormwood" itself is an alteration of Old English wermod, which is of obscure origin.[8] The German cognate Wermut is the source of the term vermouth, used in French and English to describe a kind of wine traditionally flavoured with wormwood.[9]

Description

A. absinthium is a herbaceous perennial plant with fibrous roots. The stems are straight, growing to 0.8–1.2 m (2 ft 7 in – 3 ft 11 in) (and rarely over 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in)) tall, grooved, branched, and silvery-green.

Leaves are spirally arranged, greenish-grey colored above, white below, covered with silky silvery-white trichomes, and bearing minute oil-producing glands. The basal leaves are up to 250 mm (10 in) long, bi- to tripinnate with long petioles, with the cauline leaves (those on the stem) smaller, 50–100 mm (2–4 in) long, less divided, and with short petioles. The uppermost leaves can be both simple and sessile (without a petiole).

Flowers are pale yellow, tubular, and clustered in spherical bent-down heads (capitula), which are in turn clustered in leafy and branched panicles. Flowering occurs from early summer to early autumn; pollination is anemophilous. The fruit is a small achene. Seed dispersal occurs by gravity.[5]

A. absinthium grows naturally on uncultivated arid ground, on rocky slopes, and at the edge of footpaths and fields. Although once relatively common, it is becoming increasingly rare in Britain, where it has recently been suggested to be an archaeophyte rather than a true native.[10]

Cultivation

A. absinthium inflorescences

The plant can easily be cultivated in dry soil. It should be planted under bright exposure in fertile, midweight soil. It prefers soil rich in nitrogen, and can be propagated by ripened cuttings taken in spring or autumn in temperate climates, or by seeds in nursery beds. Growing the plant with others tends to stunt their growth; accordingly, it is not considered to be a good companion plant. A. absinthium also self-seeds generously. It is naturalised in some areas away from its native range, including much of North America and Kashmir Valley of India.[11]

This plant,[12] and its cultivars "Lambrook Mist"[12] and "Lambrook Silver"[13] have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. These two short cultivars are very similar and more silver than typical British absinthium material and probably derive from southern Europe. "Lambrook Silver" is the earliest of these cultivars, having been selected in the late 1950s by Margery Fish, who developed the garden at East Lambrook Manor. "Lambrook Mist" was selected about 30 years later by Andrew Norton, a subsequent owner of the garden. Both gained their Awards of Garden Merit during the RHS Artemisia Trial 1991–3.

Cultivar "Silver Ghost" is a taller, silver plant, which flowers much later (August–September) than typical absinthium (June–July) in Britain, so holds its silver appearance for longer. This and a more feathery-leaved cultivar "Persian Lace" were selected by National Collection Holder John Twibell in the 1990s.[14]

Constituents

Wormwood herb contains bitter substances from the group of sesquiterpene lactones; absinthin, at 0.20 to 0.28%, is the main component of these bitter substances. Essential oils make up 0.2 to 0.8% and contain (-) - thujone, (+) - isothujone, thujyl alcohol and its esters, chamazulene and other mono- and sesquiterpenes.[15][16] In Bailen et al 2013 and Gonzalez-Coloma et al 2013 the Gonzalez-Coloma group discovered a chemotype that does not produce β-thujone but does contain terpenoids not seen elsewhere.[17]

Uses

Artemisia absinthium is claimed to have antifungal, neuroprotective, insecticidal, antimicrobial, anthelmintic, acaricidal, antimalarial, antidepressant, and hepatoprotective properties.[18]

It is an ingredient in the spirit absinthe, and is used for flavouring in some other spirits and wines, including bitters, bäsk, vermouth, and pelinkovac. As medicine, it is used for dyspepsia, as a bitter to counteract poor appetite, for various infectious diseases, Crohn's disease, and IgA nephropathy.[19][20][21][22]

In the Middle Ages, wormwood was used to spice mead,[23] and in Morocco, where it is called shība (الشيبة), it is used as a complement or substitute for mint in Moroccan tea.[24]

Wormwood was traditionally relatively common as a bittering spice in farmhouse brewing in Denmark, and to some extent Estonia.[25] In 18th-century England, wormwood was sometimes used instead of hops in beer.[26]

Wormwood clippings and cuttings are added to chicken nesting boxes to repel lice, mites, and fleas.[27] Bailen et al. 2013 and Gonzalez-Coloma et al. 2013 find the unique terpenoids of the Gonzalez-Coloma chemotype make this strain especially promising for insect control.[17] As of 2020 a company named EcoflorAgro is investing heavily into increasing the planted area of this strain, hoping to commercialize it to a degree attempted – but never achieved due to unreliable supply – for other botanical insecticides before.[17]

Toxicity

Most chemotypes of A. absinthium contain (−)-α- and/or (+)-β-thujone,[28] though some do not.[29] (−)-α-Thujone by itself is a GABAA receptor antagonist that can cause convulsions and death when administered in large amounts to animals and humans.[30] However, there is only one case of documented toxicity of wormwood involving a 31-year-old man who drank 10 mL of steam-distilled volatile oil of wormwood, wrongly believing it was absinthe liqueur.[31] Medicinal extracts of wormwood have not been shown to cause seizure or other adverse effects at usual doses.[32] Thujones have not been shown to be the cause of excessive doses' toxicity for any kind of wormwood extracts, including absinthe.[33]

Cultural history

Nicholas Culpeper insisted that wormwood was the key to understanding his 1651 book The English Physitian. Richard Mabey describes Culpeper's entry on this bitter-tasting plant as "stream-of-consciousness" and "unlike anything else in the herbal", and states that it reads "like the ramblings of a drunk". Culpeper biographer Benjamin Woolley suggests the piece may be an allegory about bitterness, as Culpeper had spent his life fighting the Establishment, and had been imprisoned and seriously wounded in battle as a result.[34]

William Shakespeare referred to wormwood in Romeo and Juliet: Act 1, Scene 3. Juliet's childhood nurse said, "For I had then laid wormwood to my dug" meaning that the nurse had weaned Juliet, then aged three, by using the bitter taste of wormwood on her nipple.

John Locke, in his 1689 book titled An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, used wormwood as an example of bitterness, writing, "For a child knows as certainly before it can speak the difference between the ideas of sweet and bitter (i.e. that sweet is not bitter), as it knows afterwards (when it comes to speak) that wormwood and sugarplums are not the same thing."[35]

Edwin Arlington Robinson relates in a poem how Cliff Klingenhagen gave a guest a glass of wine while drinking a glass of wormwood himself. He concludes, "I have spent / Long time a-wondering when I shall be / As happy as Cliff Klingenhagen is."

In the biblical book of prophesy, the Book of Revelation, the star which falls to earth and turns a thirds of the waters of the earth bitter is named Wormwood. Similarly where the Biblical Hebrew word לענה (la'anah) appears in the Hebrew Bible it is generally translated into English as "wormwood".[36]

References

  1. ↑ Linnaeus, Carolus (1753). Species plantarum:exhibentes plantas rite cognitas, ad genera relatas, cum differentiis specificis, nominibus trivialibus, synonymis selectis, locis natalibus, secundum systema sexuale digestas... Vol. 2. Holmiae (Laurentii Salvii). p. 848. Archived from the original on 4 October 2008. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 Christian Rätsch (2005). The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications. Inner Traditions/Bear. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-89281-978-2.
  3. ↑ "Artemisia absinthium L. — The Plant List". www.theplantlist.org.
  4. ↑ "Artemisia absinthium [Assenzio vero] - Flora Italiana". luirig.altervista.org.
  5. 1 2 "Artemisia absinthium in Flora of North America @ efloras.org". www.efloras.org.
  6. ↑ "artemisia". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  7. ↑ "absinthium". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  8. ↑ Harper, Douglas. "wormwood". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  9. ↑ Harper, Douglas. "vermouth". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  10. ↑ Archeophytes in Britain CD Preston, DA Pearman and A R Hall Botanical J of Linnean Society 2004 145 257-294
  11. ↑ Shafi et al., 2012
  12. 1 2 "Artemisia absinthium 'Lambrook Mist' AGM". APPS.RHS.org.uk. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  13. ↑ "Artemisia absinthium 'Lambrook Silver' AGM". APPS.RHS.org.uk. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  14. ↑ John Twibell, National Collection of Artemisia
  15. ↑ Wichtl, Max, ed. (1984). Teedrogen. Ein Handbuch für Apotheker und Ärzte. Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-8047-0792-0, pp. 363–365
  16. ↑ European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products (HMPC) (30 May 2017). Assessment report on Artemisia absinthium L., herba, final, London, p. 4
  17. 1 2 3 Isman, Murray B. (7 January 2020). "Botanical Insecticides in the Twenty-First Century—Fulfilling Their Promise?". Annual Review of Entomology. Annual Reviews. 65 (1): 233–249. doi:10.1146/annurev-ento-011019-025010. ISSN 0066-4170. PMID 31594414. S2CID 203985529.
  18. ↑ Batiha GE-S, Olatunde A, El-Mleeh A, Hetta HF, Al-Rejaie S, Alghamdi S, Zahoor M, Magdy Beshbishy A, Murata T, Zaragoza-Bastida A, Rivero-Perez N. Bioactive Compounds, Pharmacological Actions, and Pharmacokinetics of Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium). Antibiotics. 2020; 9(6):353. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics9060353
  19. ↑ European Scientific Cooperative on Phytotherapy (2009) "Absinthii herba (wormwood)" In: ESCOP Monographs: The Scientific Foundation for Herbal Medicinal Products, 2nd ed, Thieme.
  20. ↑ Abad MJ, Bedoya LM, Apaza L, Bermejo P (2012). "The Artemisia L genus: A review of bioactive essential oils" . Molecules 17: 2542-2566. PMID 22388966. doi:10.3390/molecules17032542.
  21. ↑ Algieri F, Rodriguez-Nogales A, Rodriguez-Cabezas ME, et al. (2015). "Botanical drugs as an emerging strategy in inflammatory bowel disease: a review" . Mediators Inflamm. 2015: 179616. PMID 26576073.PMC 4630406. doi:10.1155/2015/179616.
  22. ↑ Krebs S, Omer B, Omer TN, Fliser D (2010). "Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) for poorly responsive early-stage IgA nephropathy: a pilot uncontrolled trial" Am. J. Kidney Dis. 56 (6): 1095-9. PMID 20843592.doi:10.1053/j.ajkd.2010.06.025.
  23. ↑ Grieves, M. (1931). "Wormwood, Common". Botanical.com. Archived from the original on 28 May 2010. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
  24. ↑ Artemisia: An Essential Guide from The Herb Society of America (PDF), The Herb Society of America, 2013, p. 14, archived from the original (PDF) on 5 September 2015
  25. ↑ Garshol, Lars Marius (2020). Historical Brewing Techniques: The Lost Art of Farmhouse Brewing. Brewers Publications. p. 220. ISBN 9781938469558.
  26. ↑ Hartley, Dorothy (1985) [1954]. Food in England. Futura Publications. p. 456. ISBN 0-7088-2696-2.
  27. ↑ "Gardening Australia Series 29 Episode 09". ABC Australia. 23 March 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  28. ↑ Nguyen HT, Németh ZÉ (2016). "Sources of variability of wormwood (Artemisia absinthium L) essential oil". J. Appl. Res. Med. Aromatic Plants. 3 (4): 143–150. doi:10.1016/j.jarmap.2016.07.005.
  29. ↑ Ariño A, Arberas I, Renobales G, Arriaga S, Dominguez JB (1999). "Essential oil of Artemisia absinthium L from the Spanish Pyrenees". J. Essential Oil Res. 11 (2): 182–184. doi:10.1080/10412905.1999.9701105.
  30. ↑ Olsen RW (April 2000). "Absinthe and gamma-aminobutyric acid receptors". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97 (9): 4417–4418. Bibcode:2000PNAS...97.4417O. doi:10.1073/pnas.97.9.4417. PMC 34311. PMID 10781032.
  31. ↑ Weisbord SD, Soule JB, Kimmel PL (1997). "Poison on line – acute renal failure caused by oil of wormwood purchased through the internet". N. Engl. J. Med. 337 (12): 825–827. doi:10.1056/NEJM199709183371205. PMID 9297113.
  32. ↑ Yarnell E, Heron S (2000). "Retrospective analysis of the safety of bitter herbs with an emphasis on Artemisia absinthium L (wormwood)". J. Naturopathic Med. 9: 32–39.
  33. ↑ Lachenmeier DW, Nathan-Maister D (2007). "Systematic misinformation about thujone in pre-ban absinthe". Deutsche Lebensmittel-Rundschau. 103 (6): 255–263.
  34. ↑ Richard Mabey (2010). Weeds. The Story of Outlaw Plants. Profile Books Ltd. pp. 102–103. ISBN 978-1-84668-081-6.
  35. ↑ An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2.
  36. ↑ Musselman, Lytton John (12 April 2007). "Wormwood". Plant Site: Bible Plants. Old Dominion University. Archived from the original on 29 April 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
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