# Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)

**Artemisia**

**Known today as.** *Artemisia vulgaris*.

Kind: Plant  
Poisoning: Convulsant terpenes (thujone, pinocamphone, camphor) (https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/poisons/convulsant-terpenes)

## What did Canale use it for?

Its powder in wine; in the cockerel and a julep; in the bath and the oils; worn as an amulet and burnt to drive out “every unclean spirit” (chs. 6–7, 9–10).

## What does modern science say?

Mugwort was the herb of St. John’s Eve, worn as a crown or girdle against evil. It has traditional digestive uses and some uterine-stimulant action; nothing more is established.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **thujone**: 
- **cineole**: 
- **vulgarin**: 

**Mechanism.** Thujone, in small amounts; the pollen is a chief cause of hay fever in late summer. Artemisinin, the malaria drug, is from the sweet wormwood *Artemisia annua*, a relative, for which Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize in 2015.

**Dose.** The herb is weak; the oil carries thujone.

**Standing.** No approved use in the West; moxibustion burns it on the skin in Chinese practice.

## What lore surrounds it?

Girdles of mugwort were worn on St. John’s Eve and thrown into the bonfire, carrying the year’s ill luck away with them.

Mugwort is the source of moxa, the aged, pulverized leaf that Chinese medicine burns on acupuncture points, still used, among other purposes, to try to turn breech babies before birth. Pliny’s claim that a traveler carrying mugwort will not tire has a soldierly cousin: Roman soldiers reportedly lined their footwear with the leaf against fatigue and cramp on the march. In Japan mugwort is still hung with iris leaves outside homes to keep evil spirits away by its scent.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Pliny.** Says that a traveler who carries mugwort will not tire on the road.

**The Nine Herbs Charm.** The Old English charm names mugwort the first and eldest of the nine herbs, and bids it remember what it made known.

## Sources

- Wikipedia, “Mugwort.”
- Grieve, M. *A Modern Herbal*, “Mugwort.” As published on botanical.com.
- Tu, Y. (2011). “The discovery of artemisinin (qinghaosu) and gifts from Chinese medicine.” *Nature Medicine* 17.

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*Mugwort.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-09-25. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/mugwort

Historical description, not medical advice.