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wormwood
(redirected from Artemisia absinthium)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia 0.02 sec.
wormwood, Mediterranean perennial herb or shrubby plant (Artemisia absinthium) of the family Asteraceae (aster aster [Gr.,=star], common name for the Asteraceae (Compositae), the aster family, in North America, name for plants of the genus Aster, sometimes called wild asters, and for a related plant more correctly called China aster (Callistephus chinensis
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 family), often cultivated in gardens and found as an escape in North America. It has silvery gray, deeply incised leaves and tiny yellow flower heads. Wormwood oil has been utilized since ancient times as an insect repellent, particularly for moths; until recently it was used for intestinal worms and for other medicinal purposes. It was also employed in brewing but is best known for its bitter principle, which is an important ingredient of absinthe absinthe , an emerald-green liqueur distilled from wormwood and other aromatics, including angelica root, sweet-flag root, star anise, and dittany, which have been macerated and steeped in alcohol. It was invented in the 1790s by a Dr.
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; the compound alpha-thujone, found in wormwood, formerly gave that liqueur its toxicity. Because of its bitter taste the common wormwood has long symbolized human rancor and is often so represented in the Bible.

Other artemisias, some American, are also called wormwood; still others include southernwood (A. abrotanum), tarragon tarragon , perennial aromatic Old World herb (Artemisia dracunculus) of the family Asteraceae (aster family), of the same genus as wormwood and sagebrush.
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, silver king artemisia (A. albula), old woman, or dusty miller (A. stelleriana), Roman wormwood (A. pontica), sagebrush sagebrush, name for several species of Artemisia, deciduous shrubs of the family Asteraceae (aster family), particularly abundant in arid regions of W North America. The common sagebrush (A.
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, sweet, or Chinese, wormwood (A. annua), from which the antimalarial artemisinin is extracted, and Levant wormseed (A. cina), which yields santonin. Artemisias are classified in the division Magnoliophyta Magnoliophyta , division of the plant kingdom consisting of those organisms commonly called the flowering plants, or angiosperms. The angiosperms have leaves, stems, and roots, and vascular, or conducting, tissue (xylem and phloem).
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, class Magnoliopsida, order Asterales, family Asteraceae.


wormwood
any of various plants of the chiefly N temperate genus Artemisia, esp A. absinthium, a European plant yielding a bitter extract used in making absinthe: family Asteraceae (composites)


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WHAT is the plant Artemisia absinthium better known as?
from the Department of Biology, University of Minnesota at Duluth showed that water extracts of Artemisia absinthium were capable of protecting African green monkey kidney cells (Vero-Cells) and human epithelial type two (HEp-2) cells against herpes viruses at non-cytotoxic concentrations levels.
 
 
 
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