ACHILLEA MILLIFOLIUM
TRUE YARROW, MILFOIL: Delicate, gray-green, feathery leaves and clusters of small white flowers on long stems. Quickly spreading by roots and seeds. Stimulant, tonic, diaphoretic, vulnerary and aromatic. Used for colds if taken at the onset of fever. Used in witchcraft for divination and spells, being called “the Devil’s plaything.” Also used for venereal and menstrual problems. Navajo Indians drink a tea of the plant or chew the stems before intercourse for its aphrodisiac properties. Stronger substitute for hops in beer brewing. Plant with caution; yarrow is a very hardy plant and spreads very rapidly.
ANTHEMIS NOBILIS
ROMAN CHAMOMILE: A hardy, very pleasantly aromatic, slowly spreading ground cover with white and yellow flowers used as a tea (bitter) with strong sedative properties. Often used for nervous stomachs. An old friend of mine once said, “This is good enough to be illegal.” It’s good, but not that good. Also called Chamaemelum nobile. Sun or
part shade.
ARTEMISIA ABROTANUM
SOUTHERNWOOD, OLD MAN, LAD’S LOVE, MAIDEN’S RUIN: A southern wormwood, from the South of Europe. A woody shrub with feathery gray-green leaves and inconspicuous yellow-white flowers. Highly scented. Used as a stimulant tonic and an emmenagogue or as a moth repellent (in French: garde-robe). It is a culinary herb in Italy. Once considered to be an aphrodisiac; 19th century poets used this plant as a clandestine symbol of homosexuality. Grows to 3-4′ tall and likes full sun.
ARTEMISIA ABSINTHUM
FAMILY :: COMPOSITAE
“There fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp….And the name of the star is called Wormwood.”
— Revelations 8:10, 11, The Christian Bible
WORMWOOD, ABSINTHE: One of my favorite herbs. Very bitter, contains thujone. Once used as a stimulant for cerebral exhaustion, as a stomachic, antiseptic, antihelminthic. Marketed commercially in Absorbine Jrâ„¢, a liniment for sprains. It’s also the main ingredient in Absinthe, the internationally demonized alcoholic distillation that “inspired” and drove many of the Impressionist Era and late 19th Century artists and writers (Van Gogh, Degas, Gauguin, Poe, Toulouse-Lautrec, Oscar Wilde, Rimbaud, Picasso, &c).
Written records of the use of wormwood date back to the Assyrians of 600 BC. An old Judea-Christian legend has it that Wormwood first sprang up in the trail of the serpent as s/he left Eden. The genus, Artemisia, is named for Artemis, the Greek goddess of wild nature. Large doses of this plant are poisonous: an early symptom of this poisoning is purple- tinted vision. The hardy, 3-6′ plant is easily grown in almost any situation, preferring full sun.
TO SERVE ABSINTHE:
TO SERVE ABSINTHE II:
Jade Liqueurs absinthe at the Combier distillery
There is a similar plant to A. Absinthum sold in Mexico and popularly used for minor medicinal treatments.
MORE INFORMATION:
RECOMMENDED READING:
ARTEMISIA AFRA
FAMILY :: COMPOSITAE
AFRICAN WORMWOOD: A half-tender, gray, lacy-leafed 3-4′ shrub strongly scented. Said to repel dogs.
Used in traditional African medicine for fevers, bronchial problems and malaria. As an inhalation it is used traditionally to relieve nasal congestion and headache. The fresh leaf is put into the nose for nasal congestion. Warmed leaves relieve inflammation due to hemorrhoids. Narcotic analgesic and antihistaminic properties have been reported. The volatile oil obtained from the leaves has antimicrobial activity against bacteria and fungi, of both public health and agricultural importance.
Artemisia afra is one of the oldest and best known South African medicinal plants, and is still used effectively today in South Africa by people of all cultures.
ARTEMISIA AFRA MONOGRAPH
... In the Mercado
