Mugwort

Artemisia vulgaris

Also: Cronewort, Sailor's tobacco, Felon herb

CoolingDryingRelaxing

Moves a slow gut and a stuck cycle.

A tall, rangy roadside herb with deeply cut leaves, dark green above and silver-white beneath, and long plumes of tiny rust-colored flowers. Mugwort gets a slow, crampy gut moving, brings on a late period and eases its pain, and lends vivid dreams to the night.

Energetics: Cooling, drying, relaxing
Taste: Bitter, aromatic
Family: Asteraceae (daisy family)
Parts used: Leaves and flowering tops

Medicinal uses 4

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Traditional useLab and mechanism studiesClinical studies

Indigestion & bloatingTLC
Its bitterness wakes up a slow, stagnant gut and eases intestinal cramping.
Sluggish liver & digestionTLC
Stirs bile and eases heaviness after meals.
Menstrual crampsTLC
Brings blood to the pelvis, easing painful periods, especially with emotional upset.
Trouble sleepingTLC
Taken before bed it deepens dreams and helps cut down mid-night waking.

Preparations

Short courses of tea and tincture, dream tea, and warming infused oil.

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Cautions

People allergic to ragweed, daisies, or chamomile often react to mugwort, and its pollen is a common hay fever trigger.
It brings on menstruation; leave it out in the week before your period if you bleed heavily.
Contains thujone; keep to tea and tincture doses and avoid the essential oil.

Medication interactions

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Pregnancy & breastfeeding

PregnancyAvoid

Mugwort brings on menstruation and contains thujone, so it is contraindicated in pregnancy. Moxibustion, warming the skin with burning mugwort, is a separate practice for your acupuncturist and midwife.

BreastfeedingAvoid

Its thujone could reach a nursing baby. It waits until after weaning.

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Folklore

Artemisia honors Artemis, goddess of the hunt and of women in childbirth. Pliny wrote that travelers who carried mugwort would not tire on the road, and Roman soldiers are said to have tucked it into their sandals. In Chinese medicine the dried leaf is fluffed into moxa and burned over points on the body. Across Europe, girdles of mugwort were worn for dancing on St John's Eve and then thrown into the midsummer fire to burn away bad luck.

How to grow

A tough, spreading perennial that thrives in sun and poor, disturbed soil. It spreads by rhizomes and can take over a bed, so contain it. Cut the leafy tops just before flowering.

In the wild

Roadsides, vacant lots, riverbanks, and field edges across Europe, Asia, and North America, where it is often weedy.

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