Artemisia annua (Sweet Wormwood)

Question 1

How do you recognise Sweet Wormwood?

Answer 1

• Sweet wormwood, sweet Annie or Qinghao - an annual
• Leaves more finely divided than other Artemisias. Stems red brown and flowers small creamy green. Grows smaller.
• Taste is a bit minty
• Native to East Asia but can be grown in UK
• Recently used in the west, but used for thousands of years in TCM for clearing the heat of fevers and skin diseases - a cooling bitter
• Attention has focused upon the plant’s antimalarial actions since the last 1960’s – used for treatment however, not prevention.
• Lots of the research relates to the constituent artemisinin.

Question 2

What are Sweet Wormwood’s main constituents?

Answer 2

Constituents:
* Sesquiterpene lactones - especially artemisinin & artemether
* Flavonoids
* Essential oil - pinenes, myrcene, cineole.
* Coumarins

Question 3

What family is Sweet Wormwood?

Answer 3

An annual member of the Asteraceae

Question 4

What is Sweet Wormwood good for?

Answer 4

Summary: Anti parasitic, but also anti-neoplastic / cancer treatment. Useful for prostatic and ovarian/ fallopian tube cancers. Induces cell death in cancer cells, and slow growth and angigenesis (development of blood vessels that supply the cancer).

Actions:
* Antiparasitic
* Antineoplastic.
* Antioxidant - however Artemisinin actually causes oxidative stress in some cells - especially cancer cells. Clever!
* Immunomodulator.
* Bitter.

Applications:
* Protozoal and parasitic diseases – especially Plasmodium falciparum (malaria), Leishmaniasis, Trypanosoma cruzi
(Chaga’s disease) & the Trypanosoma that cause sleeping sickness.
* Cancer –especially prostatic, ovarian & fallopian.
* Autoimmune conditions.

Note:
* Much of the research has been conducted on artemisinin rather than upon the whole plant.
* Artemisinin & A. annua are used to treat malaria - not as preventative measures.

Question 5

What is Sweet Wormwood ‘s Latin name?

Answer 5

Artemisia annua

Question 6

What parts of Sweet Wormwood do you use?

Answer 6

Parts used: aerial parts.

Question 7

What safety issues might Sweet Wormwood have?

Answer 7

Safety: seen as being safe but may cause GIT upset and high doses N/S symptoms

Question 8

What useful research does Sweet Wormwood have?

Answer 8

External Links:
* Artemisinin, the Magic Drug Discovered from Traditional Chinese Medicine – 2019
* Dried whole-plant Artemisia annua slows evolution of malaria drug resistance and overcomes resistance to artemisinin - 2015

Question 9

What remedies might you use Sweet Wormwood in?

Answer 9

Dosage: see third year material re use in cancer. Up to 40ml/week 1:3 tincture for malaria.

Not very soluable in water, so best used as a tincture. Bendle does not use it much.