Wormwood, also known as Artemisia alba, is a perennial herb or a slightly semi-shrubby plant with a strong aromatic scent. Wormwood can be used as a medicine in its entirety, including the leaves, roots and fruits, and the leaves can be dried and crushed to make moxa, which can then be added to other herbs to make moxa strips for moxibustion.
In recent years, research on the chemical composition and pharmacological effects of wormwood has gradually intensified, and its chemical composition mainly includes volatile oils, polysaccharides, flavonoids, phenols, triterpenoids, etc. It has good activity in antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-virus. It has been gradually expanded from edible and medicinal uses to health food, daily products, cosmetics, textiles and many other fields.
Applications of wormwood in medicine
Moxibustion is one of the most famous traditional medical treatments and is widely used not only for the prevention and treatment of more than 100 diseases, but also for health care. Moxa is the main material used in moxibustion and is obtained by drying, crushing, sieving and refining the herb wormwood leaves. Moxibustion is used in internal medicine, surgery, paediatrics and gynaecology for acute and chronic diseases, and is effective in improving the gastrointestinal tract, relieving arthritis pain and treating respiratory diseases.
Moxibustion can improve the function of the gastrointestinal tract. Antibiotics may destroy the normal intestinal flora causing diarrhoea. Studies have shown that moxibustion can reduce intestinal nerve sensitivity, improve gastrointestinal dynamics, maintain stable intestinal barrier function, regulate immune and anti-inflammatory responses, restore or rebuild healthy intestinal flora and defend against pathogenic bacteria, thus improving antibiotic-associated diarrhoea.
Moxibustion can be applied to joint diseases. Comparative clinical trials have shown that moxibustion combined with anti-osteoporosis drugs may increase bone density and provide more effective pain relief than drugs used alone.
Applications of wormwood in food
- Confectionery
As an edible Chinese herb, wormwood should be used in food production to maximise its use in practice. The addition of wormwood powder to traditional soft breads has improved the nutritional parameters of wormwood honey soft breads and extended their shelf life to 5 days at room temperature of 25°C. In addition, the combination of wormwood with chiffon cake has improved the nutritional value of the cake and enhanced its pharmacological effects. The addition of wormwood leaves to the biscuits not only preserves the physical and chemical properties of the biscuits, but also greatly enhances the health benefits and antibacterial effects of wormwood leaves, making the biscuits more nutritious.
- Wormwood wine
As a dual-use plant, wormwood wine is developed by macerating fresh wormwood stems and leaves with the raw material of a strong fragrant white wine, which has a bright green colour and outstanding aroma.
- Wormwood tea
Wormwood tea can be made from the new shoots of wormwood, or from the old leaves, which are dried and quickly fried. In addition, wormwood tea can be made from wormwood bean juice, saffron wormwood tea and angelica wormwood tea with other ingredients. The literature reports that wormwood tea has a wide range of therapeutic properties, treating civilizational diseases such as fatigue and air conditioning, obesity and high blood pressure, and protecting the stomach and liver.
The use of wormwood in everyday products and cosmetics
Wormwood is used in daily necessities, such as wormwood scented pouches, toothpaste, wormwood paste and wormwood incense, as well as shoe insoles and pillows with wormwood as the core.
Wormwood is used as the main raw material to make acne creams and transdermal absorption patches, which have good cold and heat stability and anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and acne-fighting effects. The wormwood fibre spunlace mask base has a higher density, relatively small thickness, excellent mechanical properties, high longitudinal and transverse breaking strength, good air permeability, good liquid absorption and an improved antibacterial rate.
Wormwood in textile applications
Wormwood essential oil is an essential oil extracted from the stems and leaves of wormwood and has a strong volatility. Compared to pure wormwood oil, wormwood oil can be made into microcapsules by selecting different ratios of core wall materials and then finishing on cotton fabrics to achieve a slow release of essential oil and better thermal stability, which has a broader application in functional health care fabrics and clothing for special groups.
wormwood is a widely used Chinese herbal medicine with good activity in antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. In recent years, the development and use of wormwood has been expanding, partly due to its high safety and long history of application as a medicinal and dietary herb, and partly due to the fact that more and more people are focusing on health care and wellness as people become more health conscious, making the health benefits of wormwood products more acceptable.
