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What is it?

The leaves of Wormwood, a tough and long-lived plant that has an intense odour and a truly unforgettable taste. The whole Wormwood plant has an unusual grey-white colour and is covered with a soft downy kind of fur. It looks weird, it tastes very weird and its name could hardly be less appealing but this is a plant with a tremendous medical history and one that is still revered in many traditions of medicine today.

How has it been used?

Wormwood has been extensively used to kill worms and parasites, and of course this is obviously how it got its name.

Wormwood also has a rich traditional use as a bitter tonic, meaning it was given to people with weakened digestion or low energy as a method to re-awaken their vitality. It is a liver cleansing medicine as well and has been widely used as part of cleansing programs since antiquity.

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Personal experiences

Wormwood is a powerful herb, it goes on stimulating and cleansing within the body for a long time after swallowing it, hours in fact.

Wormwood has a potent cleansing and stimulating effect that travels with it wherever it goes through the body, it is a herb to use with much respect and not for longer than required. For example the great European herbalist Hans Zeylstra would recommend a single dose of around 5-10mls of Wormwood once a fortnight for the people that needed it.

I look for signs of heavy encumbrance and excess heat as an indicator to consider using Wormwood. These show up in things such as a thick and yellowy coating on the tongue, a full and languid pulse and a red or flushed complexion. Such people may have considerable bloating and distension in their abdomen and may be prone to aching and inflamed joints.

Wormwood is damaged by heat so this is not a herb to make into a tea. The tincture of Wormwood is very effective. I have tried using several commercial formulas that contained good amounts of Wormwood in a pill or capsule form but I never found that they did much good compared to the tincture. I think that Wormwood needs to be given with some combination of Licorice root, Fennel or Peppermint to ease the process of its taste and effects.

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Excerpt from Felter & Lloyd's Kings Dispensatory from 1898

Wormwood possesses decided medicinal qualities, acting with considerable force upon the cerebrum and the sympathetic, nervous system. It has been employed with success for the expulsion of the intestinal parasites—ascaris vermicularis and lumbricoides. In small doses it is a stimulant tonic, improves the appetite, and is useful in atonic states of the gastro-intestinal tract, as a tonic dyspepsia, especially when due to alcoholic excesses, in flatulent colic, and in obstinate diarrhoea. Large doses are apt to irritate the stomach and increase the action of the heart and arteries. It has been employed with good results in amenorrhoea and leucorrhoea when due to debility.

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