Parts Used |
| Scientific Name | Artemisia absinthium |
| English Name | Absinthium, absinthe wormwood, wormwood, common wormwood, green ginger or grand wormwood |
| Portuguese Name | Absinto |
| German Name | Echter Wermut, Absinth, Bitterer Beifuß, Alsem, Wermutkraut |
| Family | Asteraceae |
| Origin | Eurasia and Northern |
| Habitat | Rocky places. |
| Life Cycle | Perennial |
| Preferences Cultivation | In spontaneous state usually live in very poor and dry soils, in high and very sun-exposed areas, and to be perfectly adapted to these conditions, represents an excellent alternative to be low maintenance gardens, since plants, once installed, requires no irrigation system to survive, even on land with very low nutrient soils. |
| Method of propagation | Sowing – between late winter and early summer. |
| Ornamental Characteristics | Flowering from July to August. H: 1 m, ᴓ 1 m |
| Description of smells and flavors | Bitter. |
| Properties Medicinal | Digestive problems. Antispasmodic, anthelmintic, antiseptic, cholagogue, carminative, emmenagogue, febrifuge and stimulant. Wormwood (leaves and flowering part) has been used for stomach problems and appetizer. The wormwood tea can help alleviating labor pains. |
| Properties Edibility | The leaves are used to flavoring dishes. Alcoholic beverage (absinthe). |
| Properties Other | None |
| Contraindications / Side Effects / Comments | This species contains a psychoactive chemical (thujone) that can cause convulsions and kidney failure when ingested in large amounts. |
| Pests and diseases & how to fight them | Unknown |
| How and When to harvest and / or pruning and which parts used. How many cuts per year? | Parts used: whole plant. |
| Can be used in intercropping ( repellent / attractive ) or is biopesticide? | Repels pests, only the black aphids on the plant can survive without, however, causing damage to the plant. |
| Curiosity / Personal Experiences | In Europe, the essential oil of Artemisia absinthium was extracted from wormwood and combined with alcohol to make the popular drink known as absinthe: “the green fairy”. |
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