Artemisia
absinthium L.
Standardized Common
Name: Wormwood
Other Common Names: Absinth, Absinthe
Sagewort, Absinthium, Madderwort
Family: Asteraceae
(Compositae)
Taxonomy: Artemisia includes somewhere from 200 to over 500 species of
shrubs and herbs, which are broadly distributed in the Northern Hemisphere,
with a major center of diversity in China. There are about 57 species in
Europe, several of which have notable medicinal or culinary uses, including A.
absinthium. Ragweed is also a member of this diverse genus, whose taxonomy
is complex; no complete modern treatment exists.
Description: Perennial herb,
sometimes slightly woody at the base. Stems clustered, 30–100 cm high, branching
above, pubescent with grayish hairs or glabrous and often reddish. Leaves
alternate, 2–3-pinnately lobed or divided; lower leaves larger, more divided
and with longer petioles than upper, to 10–12 cm long and broad; upper leaves
sometimes simple and sessile; ultimate leaf lobes oblong or oblanceolate to
linear or lanceolate in upper leaves, usually 5–20 mm long, 1–6 mm broad;
apices obtuse or acute on upper leaves; both surfaces pubescent, densely so on
lower side. Inflorescence a panicle, 15–40 cm long, with straight branches
bearing numerous reduced leaves and heads (capitula); heads pedicellate,
drooping, ca. 3 mm in diameter. Heads greenish-yellow, rounded; all florets
nearly tubular but of two types, ray florets female, disk florets
hermaphroditic; involucre hemispherical, 2–3 mm high, of 12–18 bracts
(phyllaries); outer phyllaries oblong, the inner ovate, pubescent with scarious
margins and obtuse apices; receptacle bearing long white hairs; ray florets
9–20, corolla ca. 1.5 mm long, short-toothed, glabrous; disk florets 30–50,
corolla campanulate, 1.5–2 mm long, 5-toothed, glabrous. Fruit an achene,
nearly cylindrical, smooth, glabrous, without pappus.
Parts
in Commerce:
Whole herb (including stems, leaves and flowers)
Identification:
- Stems strong but
woody only at the base, striated, often somewhat hairy or smooth and
reddish, white inside
- Larger leaves
petiolate, several cm long, at least bipinnately lobed or divided;
ultimate segments 1–6 mm broad, mostly with obtuse apices
- Smallest leaves
few-lobed or simple, almost sessile
- Both sides of
leaf bearing silky hairs; at least the lower surface densely pubescent
- Heads borne on
leafy panicles, numerous, almost globose, greenish-yellow, about 3 mm
broad, containing numerous florets
- Involucre
hemispherical, 2–3 mm high; outer bracts linear to oblong or oblanceolate,
green; inner bracts ovate and obtuse with dry margins; all bracts
pubescent
- Receptacle of
head bearing long white hairs
- Marginal florets
9–20, lacking anthers; those in the center of the disk numerous,
hermaphroditic with well-developed ovaries
- All florets more
or less tubular, 1.5–2 mm long, marginal florets irregular, with small
teeth or lobes, lobes not hairy; style long-branched, protruding,
irregular in some florets
- Florets have no
pappus
- Odor aromatic,
characteristic
- Taste strongly
bitter
Artemisia
vulgaris
L.:
Numerous species of Artemisia have been used medicinally. One of the
most common of these is A. vulgaris (Mugwort), which has been confused
with A. absinthium. The taxonomy of A. vulgaris has been
complicated. Almost a dozen North American species have been lumped into A.
vulgaris in the past, but the species in the strict sense is European and
is found in North America only where it has been naturalized, particularly in
the East, or cultivated. The leaves and flowering tops or the leaves alone may
be used. Its identifying features include the following:
- Stems angled and
striated, red to purplish, smooth or slightly hairy
- Leaves pinnately
divided into several oblanceolate to obovate segments, these irregularly
toothed or lobed in larger leaves; lobes and teeth acute and
forward-pointing
- Lower leaves
short-petioled, upper leaves sessile; leaf bases somewhat auriculate
- Lower leaf
surface densely white-pubescent; margins may be minutely revolute
- Upper leaf
surface green and nearly glabrous; may have scattered short, long-armed
T-shaped hairs
- Leaf venation
netted, not conspicuous
- Uppermost bracts
of panicle small and simple
- Heads numerous,
short-pedicelled, erect or slightly drooping
- Involucre
cup-shaped, 2.5–4 mm high; bracts with broad dry margins and gray
pubescence
- Receptacle
hairless
- Ray florets 6–9,
disk florets 13–20; corollas reddish-brown or yellowish; disk florets with
apices of teeth reflexed
- Odor aromatic
- Taste aromatic
and somewhat bitter
References:
Bini Maleci L, Bagni Marchi A. Artemisia vulgaris
L. ed A. verlotiorum Lamotte: studio di alcuni caratteri morfo-anatomici
distintivi delle due specie. Webbia. 1983;37:185–196.
British Herbal Medicine
Association. British Herbal Pharmacopoeia. BHMA; 1996:138–139 and 189–190.
Fernald ML. Gray’s Manual of Botany, 8th ed. New York: American Book
Company; 1950:1519–1524.
Hall HM, Clements FE. The Phylogenetic Method in
Taxonomy: the North American Species of Artemisia, Chrysothamnus,
and Atriplex. Washington, DC: Carnegie Institute of Washington;
1923.
Keck DD. 1946. A revision of the Artemisia
vulgaris complex in North America. Proc Calif Acad Scis.
1946;25:421–468.
Torrell M, Garcia Jacas N, Susanna A, Valles J.
Phylogeny in Artemisia (Asteraceae, Anthemidae) inferred from
nuclear ribosomal DNA (ITS) sequences. Taxon. 1999;48:721–736.
Tutin TG, Persson K, Gutermann W. Artemisia.
In: Tutin TG, Heywood VH, Burges NA,
et al., eds. Flora Europaea. Vol. 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press; 1976:178–186.
Wichtl M, ed. Herbal Drugs and
Phytopharmaceuticals, 3rd English
ed. Stuttgart: medpharm Scientific Publishers and Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press;
2004:60–62.
Figure 9: a—b, Artemisia absinthium inflorescence and habit.
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