Wormwood: the parasite-fighting super herb

Veröffentlicht am: July 05, 2024
Dr. med. Wolfgang Bachmann
Dr. med. Wolfgang Bachmann

General practitioner

What do Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso have in common apart from their incredible artistic skills? All three artists shared a fondness for absinthe, a botanical spirit made from wormwood, aniseed and fennel.

You may have heard of wormwood because it's in that famous drink, but did you know that it can also help with numerous and serious health problems?

Wormwood is actually used to eliminate intestinal worms, especially roundworms and pinworms. For this reason, it is often recommended as part of a parasite cure.

How effective is wormwood? Well, it's the basis for the main ingredient in the herbal medicine artemisinin, which is touted as the strongest antimalarial drug on the market.

But that's not all. Scientific studies also show that wormwood can even kill cancer cells. Wormwood tea can also be used to treat anorexia, insomnia, anaemia, loss of appetite, flatulence, stomach pain, jaundice and indigestion.

A fascinating plant, but can this herb really fight parasites and cancer? Studies say yes, and the positive medicinal effects continue.

Of course, there are also good reasons to be wary of wormwood products (like absinthe), but once you learn about thujone, you'll understand why not all wormwood is created equal.

 

➤ It is said that the manic-depressive painter van Gogh was addicted to absinthe and that his constant consumption caused many of his paintings to take on a green or yellowish hue (due to the hallucinatory effect of thujone) - and that the wormwood also exacerbated his epilepsy.

Contents

What is wormwood?

What is wormwood actually? Artemisia absinthium is a fragrant, perennial plant from the composite family (Asteraceae or Compositae). This Artemisia plant has an aromatic smell and a spicy, bitter taste.

Many species of the Artemisia family are said to have medicinal properties. It is related to Artemisia vulgaris, the mugwort, another medicinal plant.

The wormwood plant is native to Europe as well as parts of Africa and Asia. 

Artemisia absinthium is a shrub-like plant that usually grows to a height of one to two meters. It has gray-green or white, finely hairy stems and yellow-green leaves and is native to Europe and parts of Africa and Asia. The leaves of the plant have glands that contain resinous particles in which a natural insecticide is stored.

Sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua), also known as sweet wormwood, sweet sage, annual wormwood or annual wormwood, is a common species of wormwood that is native to temperate Asia, but has also been naturalized in parts of North America.

Wormwood can be used fresh or dried. All above-ground parts of the plant (stems, leaves and flowers) are used medicinally and wormwood tea is often drunk for a range of ailments.

The essential oil is extracted from the leaves and flower tips by steam distillation. An analysis of the essential oil of Artemisia absinthium revealed that it contains at least 28 components, which make up 93.3 percent of the oil. The main components are β-pinene (23.8 percent) and β-thujone (18.6 percent).

Thujone is the potentially toxic chemical in wormwood. Distilling the herb into alcohol increases the concentration of thujone, which is what makes absinthe such a controversial drink.

The biologically active compounds of wormwood include

  • Acetylenes
  • Ascorbic acid (vitamin C)
  • Azulene
  • Carotenoids
  • Flavonoids
  • Lignins
  • Phenolic acids
  • Tannins
  • Thujone and isothujone
  • Sesquiterpene lactones

 

The benefits of wormwood


Whether as a tea, extract, tincture or ointment, the positive benefits of this medicinal plant are manifold.

1. wormwood against malaria

Malaria is a serious disease caused by a parasite that is transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito and infects the red blood cells of humans. Artemisinin is an extract isolated from the plant Artemisia annua, also known as wormwood.

Artemisinin is a herbal medicine that is one of the strongest antimalarials on the market. It is known to rapidly reduce the number of parasites in the blood of malaria patients. The WHO recommends artemisinin-based combination preparations as first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria caused by P. falciparum.

Studies have shown that artemisinin is effective against the malaria parasite because it reacts with the parasite's high iron content and forms free radicals. These radicals then destroy the cell walls of the malaria pathogen.

 

2. wormwood against cancer cells

Several studies have shown that artemisinin can fight iron-containing breast cancer cells in a similar way to malaria parasites, making it a potential natural cancer treatment for women with breast cancer.

Cancer cells can also be rich in iron, as they normally take it up to facilitate cell division. In a 2012 study, researchers examined samples of breast cancer cells and normal breast cells that were first treated to maximize their iron content. The cells were then treated with a water-soluble form of artemisinin, an extract of wormwood.

The result was impressive. The normal cells hardly changed at all, but within 16 hours almost all the cancer cells had died, while only a few healthy cells were killed. Bioengineer Henry Lai assumes that a breast cancer cell has five to 15 more receptors than a normal cell and can therefore absorb iron more easily and is therefore more susceptible to the mechanism of action of artemisinin. 

According to the researchers, this makes wormwood a potential cancer drug and a promising plant for cancer therapy. In fact, artemisinin drugs have been found to trigger the death of tumor cells and have an inhibitory effect on the spread of cancer cell lines.

 

3. wormwood promotes the elimination of parasites

Wormwood is used to eliminate intestinal worms, including pinworms, roundworms and tapeworms. Pinworms are the most common worm infection in Europe, with pinworm eggs being transmitted directly from person to person. Roundworms or nematodes are parasites that also infest the human intestine, and tapeworms are long, flat worms that infest the intestines of animals and humans.

An animal study published in the Journal of Helminthology in 2018 shows that wormwood causes paralysis, death and ultrastructural changes in worms.

A study carried out in Sweden shows that a combination of wormwood, mugwort, chicory and tansy for deworming livestock appears to have antiparasitic properties.

Discover the anti-parasite package!

 

4. wormwood is helpful for Crohn's disease

In Germany, a double-blind study investigated the efficacy of a herbal mixture with wormwood at a dosage of 500 milligrams three times a day compared to placebo over a period of 10 weeks in 40 Crohn's disease patients who were already receiving a constant daily dose of steroids.

This initial stable steroid dose was maintained until the second week, when a defined tapering schedule was introduced so that all patients were steroid-free by the beginning of the tenth week.

The researchers found that the symptoms of Crohn's disease steadily improved in 18 patients (90 percent) who received wormwood, despite the reduction in steroids. After eight weeks of treatment with wormwood, 13 patients (65 percent) in this group achieved an almost complete remission of symptoms, while this was not the case in the placebo group. This improvement lasted until the end of the observation period of 20 weeks (12 weeks later) without the need to administer steroids.

The results were truly impressive and suggest that wormwood can reduce or even eliminate the need for steroids in patients with Crohn's disease. In addition, the results suggest that wormwood has a positive effect on mood and quality of life, which is not the case with other standard Crohn's disease medications.

Similar results have also been obtained in other studies: A study conducted in 2010 found that wormwood can speed up the recovery of Crohn's disease patients, and further research published in 2020 and 2021 confirms the use of this herb to help Crohn's disease patients.

 

5. wormwood contains antimicrobial and antifungal properties

In vitro studies have shown that the essential oils of wormwood have antimicrobial properties. Research published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry suggests that wormwood oil has broad spectrum antimicrobial activity against various strains of bacteria, including E. coli and Salmonella.

Wormwood oil has not only been shown to kill bacteria, but also fungi. Research has shown that the essential oil distilled from the aerial parts of Artemisia absinthium inhibits the growth of a very wide range of fungi tested (11 to be exact). Wormwood essential oil also showed antioxidant properties in the tests.

Another study published in Planta Medica concludes that the oil of A. absinthium inhibits the growth of Candida albicans. Candida albicans is the most common yeast infection that occurs in the mouth, intestines and vagina and can also affect the skin and other mucous membranes.

 

6. wormwood can help with SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth)

Many people turn to natural and alternative treatments when they have problems with their gastrointestinal tract, and for good reason. Studies show that herbal remedies such as wormwood tea or wormwood capsules help just as well or even better against bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine or SIBO symptoms.

Current treatment for SIBO is limited to oral antibiotics with varying degrees of effectiveness. In a 2014 study, 104 patients with newly diagnosed SIBO received either a high dose of rifaximin or herbal therapy daily for four weeks.

The herbal products were specifically selected because they contained antimicrobial herbs such as wormwood, oregano oil, thyme and berberine extracts, which have been shown to cover a broad spectrum of the most common types of bacteria involved in SIBO.

Of the patients who received the herbal therapy, 46 percent showed no signs of SIBO at follow-up visits, compared to 34 percent of rifaximin users. Side effects reported in the rifaximin patients included anaphylaxis (potentially life-threatening allergic reaction), hives, diarrhea and C. difficile colitis, while only one case of diarrhea and no other side effects were reported in the herbal therapy group.

The study concluded that herbal therapies are at least as effective as rifaximin in eliminating SIBO. In addition, herbal therapy with wormwood herb appears to be as effective as triple antibiotic therapy in people who do not respond to rifaximin.

 

How do you use wormwood herb?

Wormwood herb is available as essential oil, capsules, tablets, tinctures and liquid extracts in health food stores and on the internet. It can also be used fresh or dried as a tea or infusion.

The dried form, which contains little or no thujone, is best. To prepare a tea, follow this recipe for wormwood tea:

  • Steep half a teaspoon to a teaspoon of dried or fresh wormwood in a cup of boiling water for 5 to 15 minutes.
  • Please note that you should not use more than one teaspoon of the leaves, as they are very intense and bitter. The longer the tea steeps, the stronger it becomes, but also more bitter.
  • For optimum effect, wormwood tea should be drunk unsweetened, but the bitterness can be softened by adding dried peppermint or aniseed.
  • Wormwood tea can be particularly helpful for digestion, especially before heavy meals that can lead to flatulence and bloating.

The dosage of wormwood tea depends on the intended use. Wormwood tea preparations are usually drunk in sips, as the strong, bitter taste is an important part of the therapeutic effect for stomach complaints. It can also be taken as an occasional energizer.

For intestinal complaints such as worms or parasites, it is best to take powdered wormwood in pill form.

Wormwood tea or other wormwood products should only be taken under expert supervision. It should always be taken in small doses according to instructions and for no longer than four weeks at a time.

 

Side effects, allergies and interactions with medicines

Wormwood is not suitable for long-term use. Be careful not to exceed the recommended dose, as excessive consumption can be highly toxic. It is best to use wormwood herb in dried form, as it contains little or no thujone.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classifies wormwood as unsafe for internal use due to the toxicity of thujone oil. However, it is considered safe when taken orally in amounts commonly found in foods and beverages, provided these products do not contain thujone.

If wormwood is taken for longer than four weeks or in higher than recommended doses, nausea, vomiting, restlessness, insomnia, dizziness, tremors and cramps may occur.

Wormwood products containing thujone, such as absinthe, can be dangerous if taken orally. Possible side effects of absinthe or thujone are:

  • Restlessness
  • Sleep disorders
  • Nightmares
  • Seizures
  • Dizziness
  • Trembling
  • Muscle loss
  • Kidney failure
  • Vomiting
  • Stomach cramps
  • Urine accumulation
  • ThirstNumbness in arms and legs
  • Symptoms of paralysis

Wormwood should not be taken in any form during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Wormwood has a proven abortifacient effect.

If you are allergic to ragweed or other plants from the composite family, wormwood can also cause an allergic reaction.

If you suffer from porphyria (a group of diseases caused by a buildup of natural chemicals that produce porphyrin in the body), you should know that the thujone contained in wormwood oil can increase the body's production of chemicals called porphyrins, which can make your porphyria worse.

If you suffer from epilepsy or similar conditions, talk to your doctor before taking it. The thujone contained in wormwood can trigger seizures, especially in people who are prone to epileptic seizures.

People with kidney problems are advised not to use wormwood. The oil can lead to kidney failure. If you have kidney problems, you should not take this plant without talking to your doctor first.

The use of the essential oil in aromatherapy is not recommended, as it contains an extremely high amount of thujone, which has an antispasmodic and nerve-damaging effect.

Be careful and consult your doctor before combining wormwood with an anticonvulsant (medication to prevent seizures). As both these drugs and wormwood can affect the chemicals in the brain, wormwood can reduce the effectiveness of anticonvulsants.

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