All About Wine And Its Goodness!

Artemisia Absinthiumis the botanical and Latin name for the plant Common Wormwood. The name “Artemisia” was kept from the name of the Greek Goddess Artemis. Artemis is known as the goddess of forests and hills, of the hunt and also as a protector of children. Later Artemis and the moon was corelated. Due to the bitter taste of wormwood the word “Absinthium” was thought to be come from the Ancient Greek for “without sweetness”.

The Common Wormwood plant is a perennial herb which often grows on arid ground and in rocky areas of Asia, North Africa and the Mediterranean. After streching from people’s gardens it has also been found growing in parts of North America. Common wormwood is also known as armoise, green ginger and grande wormwood.

The silver gray leaves and tiny yellow flowers gives worwood plants a preety look. The production of Wormwood oil is done from the tiny glands on the leaves. The Artemisia group of plants also includes tarragon, sagebrush, sweet wormwood, Levant wormwood, silver king artemisia, Roman wormwood and southernwood. The Artemisia plants come under the Aster family of plants.

Wormwood has been used as a herbal medicine since ancient times and its medical uses include:-
– The labor pains in women can be eased by it.
– It can also be used to counterbalance the poisoning from toadstools and hemlock.
– It can be considered as an antiseptic.
– To ease digestive problems and to stimulate digestion. People lacking sufficient stomach acid can be treated with wormwood.
– As a cardiac stimulant in pharmaceuticals.
– Fevers decreases by it’s use.
– One can use it as an anthelmintic to expel intestinal worms.
– People used it as a tonic.

There is research claiming that wormwood may be effective in treating Alzheimer’s disease and Crohn’s disease.

Effects of Artemisia Absinthium

Wormwood is a key ingredient in the liquor Absinthe, the Green Fairy, which was banned in many countries in the early 1900s. Absinthe is named after this herb which also gives the drink its characteristic bitter taste,

Absinthe was banned because of its alleged psychedelic effects. People thought that it was responsible for hallucinations and mental illness. People attached Absinthe with the Bohemian culture of Parisian Montmartre.

The effects of thujone in wormwood and THC in the drug cannabis are said to be the same. The quantity of thujone is so small in Absinthe that one had to drink excess of Absinthe to feel the harmful effects of thujone!

One can drink Absinthe as any other strong spirit but in balanced amount.

Artemisia Absinthium is the main content of real Absinthe. There are also “fake” Absinthes away from the real Green Fairy which are prepared from other herbs and flavorings. If you want the real thing you must check that they contain thujone or Common Wormwood or use essences,such as those from AbsintheKit.One can visit AbsintheKit.com to make his own Absinthe containing Artemisia Absinthium.

Tags: absinthe, Common Wormwood, effects of Artemisia Absinthium

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 10:02 pm and is filed under food and wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.