Artemisia absinthium
Artemisia absinthium | |
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Absinthe Museum garden, Auvers-sur-Oise, France | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Asterales |
Family: | Asteraceae |
Genus: | Artemisia |
Species: | A. absinthium
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Binomial name | |
Artemisia absinthium | |
Synonyms[2][3] | |
List
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Artemisia absinthium, otherwise known as common wormwood, is a species of
Etymology
Wormwood's relative
"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
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
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
Uses
Artemisia absinthium is claimed to have
It is an ingredient in the spirit
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.
Toxicity
Most
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. He also referred to wormwood in Hamlet: Act 3, Scene 2. Hamlet said, "That's wormwood" in response to the Player Queen expressing distaste for remarriage.
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
- ^ 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.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-89281-978-2.
- ^ "Artemisia absinthium L. — The Plant List". www.theplantlist.org.
- ^ "Artemisia absinthium [Assenzio vero] - Flora Italiana". luirig.altervista.org.
- ^ a b "Artemisia absinthium in Flora of North America @ efloras.org". www.efloras.org.
- ^ "artemisia". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ "absinthium". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "wormwood". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "vermouth". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
- ^ Archeophytes in Britain CD Preston, DA Pearman and A R Hall Botanical J of Linnean Society 2004 145 257-294
- ^ Shafi et al., 2012
- ^ a b "Artemisia absinthium 'Lambrook Mist' AGM". APPS.RHS.org.uk. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
- ^ "Artemisia absinthium 'Lambrook Silver' AGM". APPS.RHS.org.uk. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
- ^ John Twibell, National Collection of Artemisia
- ISBN 3-8047-0792-0, pp. 363–365
- ^ European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products (HMPC) (30 May 2017). Assessment report on Artemisia absinthium L., herba, final, London, p. 4
- ^ S2CID 203985529.
- ^ 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
- ^ European Scientific Cooperative on Phytotherapy (2009) "Absinthii herba (wormwood)" In: ESCOP Monographs: The Scientific Foundation for Herbal Medicinal Products, 2nd ed, Thieme.
- .
- .
- .
- ^ Grieves, M. (1931). "Wormwood, Common". Botanical.com. Archived from the original on 28 May 2010. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
- ^ 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
- ISBN 9781938469558.
- ISBN 0-7088-2696-2.
- ^ "Gardening Australia Series 29 Episode 09". ABC Australia. 23 March 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
- .
- .
- PMID 10781032.
- PMID 9297113.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Lachenmeier DW, Nathan-Maister D (2007). "Systematic misinformation about thujone in pre-ban absinthe". Deutsche Lebensmittel-Rundschau. 103 (6): 255–263.
- ISBN 978-1-84668-081-6.
- ^ An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2.
- ^ 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.
External links
- Biodiversity Heritage Library bibliography for Artemisia absinthium
- Erowid Wormwood Vault- information on the use and preparation of wormwood, along with user experiences.
- European Medicines Agency (4 March 2020). European Union herbal monograph on Artemisia absinthium L., herba, Amsterdam
- AHPA Herbs in History historical information on wormwood in the Mediterranean tradition