Health Benefits of Wormwood plant

Wormwood is known from antiquity and it is mentioned in the antique texts of Plinio, Avicenna and the "Salernitan School". It is used in all the diseases with lack of acidity of the digestive system.

Description of Wormwood plant

Wormwood is a rustic herb. The whole herb is 60 - 120cm tall and has a grey-white color. The leaves are divided into long lobs. The flowers are light-yellow and they have a powerful perfume due to the etheric oil they contain. It blooms from July to September. It is highly spread in Eurasia and the Middle East and it grows on dry and uncultivated lands.

Only the leaves and the high stalks are used for medical purposes. The leaves must be picked before blooming, in May - June, and the flowers in July - August, when the blooming is complete. Drying must be done in the shade, in dry and breezy places.

Properties and benefits of Wormwood plant

Wormwood contains absinthine, bitterish glucose, absinthol, tannin, chlorophyll and malic acid. The essence contains thujone, tanacetone, azulene and cadinene (which increase the muscular tonus and activates over the areas where the epileptic crises appear). It also contains vitamins B6 and C. it is a powerful tonic, antiseptic, antidiarrheic, antipyretic and it regulates the menstruation.

Treatments

   Because it is a digestive tonic, wormwood increases bile secretion when it is administrated as infusion. If it is administrated as powder (0.5 - 2g in honey or sugar) it helps the human body reduce fever.

   Infusion is also good against belly worms and oxiuris. For intestinal worms, the wormwood tincture is recommended to be administrated in 9 days long cures.

   The bitter compounds and volatile oil components have an excitant action over gastric secretion, they are anti-inflammatory and anthelmintic. Wormwood increase diuresis and can be used as a laxative.

pelin

   Internally, wormwood is recommended for the treatment of liver insufficiency, kidney oedema, anemia and absence of the menstrual cycle. It is also good for anxiety and gout and it is generally good for all the diseases that involve the retention of water in tissues.

   Wormwood is a good cicatrizing. The infusion can be used to treat ulcerations and the oil can be applied on wounds.

   Externally it is also used to treat hemorrhoids and vaginitis.

Mixtures

   The infusion is prepared out of one spoon of herb boiled in 250ml of water. It must be drunk cold before each primary meal and because of its bitter taste it can be sweetened with honey or sugar.

   The tincture is recommended for gastritis, anorexia, asthenia, fever, flu, pneumonia, intoxications and infections with Giardia. It can be prepared from 25g of mashed herb macerated in 120ml of 75o alcohol for 8 days. One spoon of tincture dissolved in 100ml of water must be administrated 3 or 4 times a day.

   The flowered heads are used to make "absinthe" and some liqueurs and vermouths.

pelin

Wormwood is occasionally used as a spice. Its bitterish taste is perfect for mixing it with fat fish or pork, goose and mutton. The most important use is for preparing stuffed goose which is a traditional meal for Christmas in Germany.

Caution

   Its consumption is not recommended for pregnant women or in cases of acute intestinal disorders. The wormwood treatment mustn't be prolonged because it can cause digestive and neural disorders.

   The wormwood mixtures must be administrated only when they are needed and overdoses can cause headaches and inflammations on the gastric mucous membrane.

   Wormwood powder can be irritant, which is why it is recommended to use a protection mask when dealing with the herb.

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