Alias: wormwood, wormwood leaf, wormwood, wormwood. It belongs to Artemisia of Compositae, and its scientific name is Artemisia argyi.
Morphological characteristics:
A perennial herb with many branches underground. The plant height is 45 ~ 120 cm, the stem is erect, round and angular, covered with gray-white fur, and the stem has branches from the middle above, and the lower leaves of the stem wither when flowering; The middle leaves are irregularly alternate, with short stems; Leaf blade ovate, pinnately parted, basal lobes often pseudostipitate, lobes ovate to lanceolate, margin coarsely serrated, front dark green, sparse white fluff, back grayish green, with gray fluff; The upper leaves are sessile, the top leaves are entire, lanceolate or strip-shaped, the flower heads are sessile, most of them are densely packed into racemes, and the involucre is densely covered with white hairs; The marginal flower is female, 7 ~ 12, often underdeveloped, and the corolla is thin; In the middle are bisexual flowers, 10 ~ 12. According to different varieties, the colors are red, yellow or light yellow. Achenes oblong, hairy or glabrous.
Distribution:
Mainly distributed in eastern Asia, such as the Korean Peninsula, Japan and Mongolia. China is distributed in northeast, north, east, southwest, Shaanxi and Gansu. Strong adaptability, generally growing in roadside wilderness and grassland. As long as there is plenty of sunshine and good drainage, it grows, but it grows better in wet and fertile soil.
Medicinal properties:
Wormwood has a close relationship with people's life in China. Every Dragon Boat Festival, people always put wormwood at home to ward off evil spirits. The withered plants are soaked in water for disinfection and itching relief. Mothers often bathe or fumigate with wormwood water. Traditional medical theory holds that Folium Artemisiae Argyi has the functions of qi and blood, expelling cold and removing dampness, warming channels, stopping bleeding and preventing miscarriage. Modern experimental studies have proved that Artemisia argyi leaves have antibacterial and antiviral effects; Antiasthmatic, antitussive and expectorant effects; Hemostatic and anticoagulant effects; Sedative and antiallergic effects; Protect liver and gallbladder, etc. Wormwood can be used as recipes such as wormwood tea, wormwood soup and wormwood porridge to enhance the body's resistance to diseases.
Some time ago, when SARS was prevalent, many people used the smoke from burning moxa sticks for air disinfection and prevention. Is there any scientific basis? A few days ago, at a symposium on wormwood (leaves) held by Nanyang Caoguo Science and Technology Development Company, Weng, Xie Haizhou, Fu Shiyuan, Mei Quanxi and other Chinese medicine experts believed that this practice had certain scientific reasons. Moreover, as one of the traditional Chinese medicines recognized and applied by the working people in China earlier, the medicinal value of wormwood goes far beyond this.
Artemisia argyi, also known as Folium Artemisiae Argyi and Artemisia argyi, is a perennial herb in Compositae. According to Mei Quanxi, president of Zhongshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Guangdong Province, Artemisia argyi has been used to treat diseases for more than 2,000 years. The earliest existing prescription in China, Fifty-two Diseases Prescription in the Warring States Period, records the treatment of mugwort leaves.
The efficacy and usage have been recorded in herbal medicines of past dynasties. In qi zhou, Hubei Province, which is rich in high-quality mugwort leaves from China, there is also a proverb that "you have mugwort leaves at home for three years, so you don't need to be a doctor". There are also many families in the local area who grow and collect mugwort leaves. Mencius said, "It takes three years for seven years to get sick", which shows the medicinal value of wormwood.
Folium Artemisiae Argyi is one of the few drugs mentioned in Huangdi Neijing. There are two prescriptions for using moxa in the appendices of Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Synopsis of the Golden Chamber: Jiao Tang Ai and Bai Ye Tang. The former is used to treat infertility caused by irregular menstruation, cell blockage and uterine cold, and mugwort leaves warm uterus to stop bleeding; Posterior hemorrhage is not limited, and these two prescriptions are still commonly used in TCM clinic. Ai has a long history of using moxibustion to treat diseases. There are records about moxibustion in Fifty-two Diseases Prescriptions and Lingshu Jing.
Mei Quanxi said that the application of mugwort leaves in ancient times was not only to treat diseases through oral administration and acupuncture, but also to treat and prevent diseases through smoking mugwort leaves in many documents. For example, earlier medical works such as Fifty-two Diseases Prescription and Elbow Urgent Prescription in the Eastern Jin Dynasty recorded the fumigation treatment of mugwort leaves. In ancient times, people thought that the smoke produced by burning mugwort leaves could prevent diseases and ward off evil spirits, but modern research has proved that mugwort smoke can prevent diseases and ward off epidemics, because moxa smoke has inhibitory effects on many pathogenic bacteria and viruses.
According to experts, in recent years, the research on mugwort leaves has been more in-depth. In terms of chemical composition, it is found that Artemisia argyi leaves not only contain volatile oil, but also contain organic components such as tannins, flavonoids, alcohols, polysaccharides and trace elements. Pharmacological research shows that Folium Artemisiae Argyi has antibacterial, antiviral, antiasthmatic, antitussive, expectorant, antiallergic, hemostatic, anticoagulant and immune functions. In clinical application, Folium Artemisiae Argyi is widely used to treat gynecological diseases such as metrorrhagia and dysmenorrhea, as well as respiratory diseases such as bronchitis, tuberculosis and common cold.