Wormwood plant/Mugwort

[Kurt]

This plant contains hydrocloriquine.used a a tea with dried leaves.Processed for the antimalarial,COVID ,plus other uses.

EE262350-4573-47EF-93EA-4BE59377EF1B.jpeg

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingre ... 9/wormwood

[Kurt]

Oops spelling should be hydroxychloriquine.

[Clkeiper]

I didn't know that. I only know how much I hate the weed that it is.... maybe it has moved up a notch in my toss a nuclear bomb at it opinion.

[peebee]

Interesting to know this. Mugwort is used in some mochi type sweets in Korea & Japan.

[bower]

I believe Sweet Annie the annual wormwood Artemisia annua is the one you're talking about. And isn't it artemisin, not hydroxychloroquine that is the active ingredient iirc? Used for malaria alright!
Pretty sure hydroxychloroquine is man-made although modeled on natural substances from quinine group. Usually the "chloro-" "bromo-" or "fluoro-" part of the chemical name tells me this is manmade and how they made it.
A lot of times halogens like chlorine, bromine or fluorine are tacked onto natural substances to make a drug that is similar to the natural parent in effect, but patentable.

[Kurt]

Thanx for the clarification,I read thru the links and got really confused.Good that someone here has that knowledge to decipher the facts.thanx again.

[karstopography]

https://www.mmv.org/malaria-medicines/h ... imalarials

The various plant derived antimalarials. Sweet wormwood is still being used as an effective anti-malarial.

I just enjoyed a cup of grand wormwood tea, Artemisia absinthium. Might have to look into growing one or the other.

[Shule]

When consumed, wormwood needs to be used with quite a bit of caution. I personally wouldn't recommend it, due to the toxicity.

[bower]

I used to have a plant or two of perennial wormwood here, but we didn't use it for anything, and at some point they stopped coming. I believe it was A. absinthium, definitely had a very strong smell. One interesting thing, I've read that the roots produce allelopathic substances that inhibit seed germination and growth of other plants. There are a few herbs like that, maybe good to suppress weeds in the garden or in the compost pile, IDK.
Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) is so pretty, I love it in the perennial garden even though it's not something I ever used. They say it repels midges and no-see-ums so that's another good reason to have it.
Those two are reportedly good worm medicine and good moth repellents, and probably the leaves were dried for that.
And the drinks of these two are said to be somewhat toxic as Shule mentioned, due to absinthin and santonin.

Not every plant in this genus is toxic though - tarragon is one of them and that is a food.
I think Artemisia annua is quite different from the absinthe and mugwort, perhaps artemisin is unique to that species? I haven't grown it and I wondered if it tastes different as well.

[karstopography]

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/wh ... d#benefits

https://draxe.com/nutrition/wormwood/

Dose, as with most toxins, is the difference.