Artemisia vulgaris
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Artemisia vulgaris, commonly known as mugwort, common mugwort, or wormwood,Template:Refn is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae. It is one of several species in the genus Artemisia commonly known as mugwort, although Artemisia vulgaris is the species most often called mugwort. Mugworts have been used medicinally and as culinary herbs.
DescriptionEdit
Artemisia vulgaris is an aromatic, herbaceous, perennial plant that grows to Template:Convert in height.Template:Sfn It spreads through vegetative expansion and the anthropogenic dispersal of root rhizome fragments—the plant rarely reproduces from seeds in temperate regions, as few seeds capable of germinating are produced by plants. Mugwort cannot easily be controlled by being ploughed into the soil, as sections of the plant's rhizomes move away from the parent plant if the soil is disturbed, causing the number of new plants to increase.<ref name="Ohio" />
Template:Multiple image The stems are purple-looking and angular.Template:Sfn The pinnate leaves are smooth and of a dark green tint on the upper surface.Template:Sfn They have dense, whitish tomentose hairs on the underside, are glabrous on the upperside, and have lobes that are approximately Template:Convert wide.Template:Sfn New leaves are opposite and are attached to the stem with a thin, long petiole. They are rounded, lack lobes, and are woolly-looking underneath.<ref name="Ohio" />
The yellow or reddish-looking flower heads, which appear from July to September, are arranged paniculate branching structure.Template:Sfn<ref name="Ohio" /> They are Template:Convert long and radially symmetrical. The outer flowers in each capitulum are female and the inner ones bisexual.Template:Sfn A. vulgaris flowers from midsummer to early autumn.<ref>Parnell, J. and Curtis, T. 2012. Webb's An Irish Flora. Cork University Press. Template:ISBN</ref> The brown rectangular-shaped fruit has one seed, and has ridges, a narrow base, and tiny bristles on the end.<ref name="Ohio" />
The root system consists of numerous horizontal branched rhizomes from which adventitious roots are produced. As many as new 20 stems can grow from one root system.<ref name="Ohio" /> The main brown woody root, which is about Template:Convert long, has rootlets Template:Convert long, and approximately Template:Convert thick.
Margaret Grieve, in her A Modern Herbal (first published in 1931), described the taste as "sweetish and acrid",Template:Sfn but contact with the plant or consuming the beverage made from it is thought cause dermatitis.<ref name="Ohio" />
NameEdit
The name mugwort is thought to have come from its use of as a method of giving flavour to beer.<ref name="Ohio" /> According to Grieve, mugwort may have been derived from moughte (a term for a moth or maggot), "because from the days of Dioscorides, the plant has been regarded, in common with Wormwood, as useful in keeping off the attacks of moths".Template:Sfn
The Ukrainian name for mugwort, Template:Langx (or more commonly {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, 'common artemisia') transliterates as "black stalk". The Ukrainian city of Chernobyl gets its name from the plant.Template:Sfn
Distribution and habitatEdit
Artemisia vulgaris is native to temperate Europe, Asia, North Africa, and Alaska, and is naturalized in North America,<ref name="Kew">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> where some consider it an invasive weed. It is a common plant growing in places containing low-nitrogen soils, such as waste places, roadsides and uncultivated areas.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The plant, which prefers alkaline conditions, readily becomes established in open, sandy ground.<ref name="Ohio" />
The plant rarely reproduces from seeds in temperate regions, as few seeds capable of germinating are produced by plants, and the species mainly reproduces from rhizomes. Mugwort cannot easily be controlled by being ploughed into the soil, as sections of the plant's rhizomes move away from the parent plant if the soil is disturbed, causing the number of new plants to increase.<ref name="Ohio" />
EcologyEdit
Several species of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) such as Ostrinia scapulalis feed on the leaves and flowers of the plant.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> It is possibly susceptible to being attacked by honey fungus.<ref name="RHS">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
UsesEdit
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In the Middle Ages, mugwort was called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, as it was believed that the 1st century preacher John the Baptist wore a girdle made from the plant. According to Grieve, mugwort was believed to protect travellers from exhaustion, heatstroke, and wild animals; it was worn on St. John's Eve to gain security from evil spirits.Template:Sfn
Before the introduction of hops in the beer-making process, A. vulgaris was once commonly used in England as the flavouring agent. Dried mugwort flowers were added to malt liquor, and this was added to the beer.Template:Sfn Mugwort has been used as one of the traditional flavouring and bittering agents of gruit ales, a type of unhopped, fermented grain beverage. In Vietnam as well as in Germany,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Mugwort is used to season roast goose at Christmas (Weihnachtsgans).</ref> mugwort is used in cooking as an aromatic herb.Template:Citation needed In China, the crunchy stalks of young shoots of A. vulgaris are a seasonal vegetable often used in stir fries.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Nepal, the plant is used as an offering to the gods, for cleansing the environment (by sweeping floors or hanging a bundle outside the home), as incense, and also as a medicinal plant.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The dried leaves can be smoked or used to make a tea, to promote lucid dreaming. This supposed oneirogenic effect is reported to be due to the thujone contained in the plant.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Pharmacological usesEdit
Historically, A. vulgaris was referred to as the "mother of herbs" during the Middle Ages, and has been widely used in the traditional Chinese, European, and Hindu medicine. It supposedly possesses a wide range of pharmacological uses, including anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, antispasmolytic, antinociceptive, antibacterial, antihypertensive, antihyperlipidemic, and antifungal properties.<ref name="Ekietal">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Phytochemical constituentsEdit
A. vulgaris houses a variety of phytochemicals which are responsible for its pharmacological properties. The phytochemicals belong to classes including flavonoids, essential oils, phenolic acids, coumarins, sterols, carotenoids, vitamins, and sesquiterpene lactones, among many others.<ref name=":1" /> Examples of the phytochemicals include vulgarin, artemisinin, scopoletin, camphene, camphor, sabinene, and some derivatives of quercetin and kaempferol.<ref name="Ekietal" /><ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref>