Artemisia: after the Greek goddess Artemis who so benefitted from a plant of this family that she gave it her own name. This was also the old Latin name given to the mugwort or wormwoods. An alternative possibility for the derivation of this name is that it comes from Queen Artemisia of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor (Turkey), sister and wife of King Mausolus, who ruled after his death from 352 to 350 B.C.E. and built during her short reign one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, which she unfortunately did not live to see the completion of. This is one of the many genera which Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus published in his Species Plantarum in 1753 and is in the family Asteraceae.

Culpeper: ‘Abrotanum mas, foemina. Southernwood, male and foemale.... resists poison, kills worms, provokes lust; outwardly in plaisters it dissolves cold swellings, and helps the bitings of venomous beasts, makes hair grow.’

It is used as a tea in Southern Europe and parts of Asia; its antihelminthic activity is due to coumarin glycosides. As with many poisons and medicines, it is necessary to find the dose that kills the worms and not the patient.

SOUTHERNWOOD; BOY'S LOVE; LAD'S LOVE; OLD MAN; MAIDEN'S RUIN; MAID'S LOVE; MAID'S PASSION; MEDICINAL WORMWOOD; SABBATH DAY POSY; SLOVENWOOD; SWEET BENJAMIN

Sowthernwode

Historical from Macer's Herbal As a plaster for swollen sinews; As a decoction for difficulty in breathing Drunk raw with wine for the cough, sore loins and disorders ('greuaunces') of the pudenda As a diuretic and for getting rid of (bladder) stones Kills intestinal worms, stops menstruation, and stops the pains and diseases of the hip bone. Cures fistulas; Repels serpents by its smell, and drunk it destroys the venom of serpents For a cold fever, drunk with water or soaked in cummin oil and anointed on the limbs. With bread crumbs and apples for eye problems. As a plaster for thorns. Laid under the pillow to encourage one to lechery, drunk to abate lechery and cure gout

Historical from Turner's New Herball (1551) Seed, crushed and drunk in hot water, is good for sciatica, stopping urinary incontinence and periods. With wine it is good against poison. The herb in the bed, and smoke from burning it, keeps serpents away. Drunk it treats snake, spider and scorpion bites. 'It kills worms, for it is bitter'.If burnt and mixed with Ricinus and applied topically it makes beards grow quickly. Placed under a man's pillow it 'provoketh men to the multiplying of their kind ... which by charming are not able to exercise the work of generation'.

Contains coumarin glycosides.

Contains thujone which can be toxic if ingested in large amounts, but the risk is low.