# Southernwood (Artemisia abrotanum)

**Abrotano**

**Known today as.** *Artemisia abrotanum*, “lad’s love.”

Kind: Plant

## What did Canale use it for?

Hung about the neck, and for fumigations and decoctions (ch. 10).

## What does modern science say?

Aromatic and moth-repellent. Its oil is rich in thujone and other terpenes that repel insects in the laboratory; there is no evidence for hair or for serpents.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **1,8-cineole**: 
- **davanone**: 
- **thujone**: variable, low
- **abrotanine**: an alkaloid
- **coumarins**: 

**Mechanism.** An artemisia with a bitter and an oil that is antimicrobial and insect-repellent, the lad’s-love of the linen chest; worn at the neck it is a scent. A nasal spray of southernwood extract was tested for allergic rhinitis in a small open study (Remberg, 2004) and no more.

**Dose.** Safe at tea doses; the oil in quantity, like other artemisias, is a convulsant.

**Standing.** No monograph.

## What lore surrounds it?

Boys carried a sprig to court girls, whence lad’s love; it was laid among clothes against the moth, as its French name *garde-robe* says, and carried to church with the Bible to be smelled against drowsiness in the sermon.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Dioscorides.** Gives *abrotonon*, boiled in wine, against poisons and the bite of serpents, and the smoke of it to drive serpents from the house.

**Culpeper.** Says the ashes mixed with oil make the hair grow on a bald head or a beardless chin, which gave it the names lad’s love and old man.

## Sources

- Dioscorides, *De materia medica* III.
- Grieve, M. (1931). *A Modern Herbal*, “Southernwood.”
- Remberg, P., et al. (2004). “Characteristics, clinical effect profile and tolerability of a nasal spray preparation of *Artemisia abrotanum* L. for allergic rhinitis.” *Phytomedicine* 11.

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*Southernwood.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/southernwood

Historical description, not medical advice.