Wormwood

Artemisia absinthium

HRB-0318Entry “WORMWOOD” in the 1850 textIn Culpeper’s 1652 first edition

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Old claims, quoted verbatim: not medical advice. A warning sits above the claims and never hides them; no warning does not mean safe, only that no source here has flagged the plant.

Substance of concernThe oil causes seizures: about 10 ml led to muscle breakdown and kidney failure (NEJM 1997). The EMA accepts the herb for poor appetite and indigestion, but not under 18 and not with liver or bile-duct disease.EFSA: Camphor, alpha-thujone, beta-thujoneEFSA’s list of substances, not a danger rating. Checked 26 October 2026.

Historical correspondence. Ruled by Mars, by Culpeper. A traditional astrological assignment, kept apart from the modern evidence; it is not a finding.

Culpeper’s claims about it: 9, under 9 headings

  1. Appetite (to restore)CLM-000117
    it causes appetite to meat, because Mars rules the attractive faculty in man:
    QUO-000097Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  2. BruisesCLM-000386
    Wheals, pushes, black and blue spots, coming either by bruises or beatings.
    QUO-000324Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  3. CholicCLM-000485
    If Mars be in a Virgin, in the nativity, they say he causes the cholic (it is well God hath set some body to pull down the pride of man.) He in the Virgin troubles none with the cholic, but them that know not themselves (for who knows himself, may easily know all the world.) Wormwood, an herb of Mars, is a present cure for it;
    QUO-000411Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  4. InflammationsCLM-000972
    Mars eradicates all diseases in the throat by his herbs (for wormwood is one) and sends them to Egypt on an errand never to return more, this done by antipathy.
    QUO-000738Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  5. JaundiceCLM-001061
    The sun never shone upon a better herb for the yellow jaundice than this;
    QUO-000787Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  6. Jaundice — YellowCLM-0011041850 index
    The sun never shone upon a better herb for the yellow jaundice than this;
    QUO-000787Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  7. SurfeitsCLM-001765
    It cleanses the body of choler (who dares say Mars doth no good?) It provokes urine, helps surfeits, or swellings in the belly;
    QUO-001132Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  8. SwellingsCLM-001847
    It cleanses the body of choler (who dares say Mars doth no good?) It provokes urine, helps surfeits, or swellings in the belly;
    QUO-001132Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  9. WormsCLM-0021451850 index
    The Moon looks much after children, and children are much troubled with the worms; she desired a medicine of him, he bid her take his own herb, Wormwood.
    QUO-001347Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance

Source

Nicholas Culpeper, The Complete Herbal, a new edition (London: Thomas Kelly, 1850). Project Gutenberg eBook #49513. SRC-CUL-1850

Quotations are verbatim from the 1850 text, line breaks joined. Modern research and the European regulator’s verdict on each claim are on the Concordance page, kept apart from this historical record.