Artemisia plant, widely used for acute icteric hepatitis

What is artemisia plant(Liu Ji Nu)? Medicinally it means the whole plant of Artemisia anomala S.Moore. This is a plant in the family Compositae. And other names of it include Artemesia, Diverse Wormwood Herb, Artemesia Herb, Herba Artemisiae Anomalae, and so on. In China it is mainly produced in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hunan and other places. All of them grow in the wild. For medicinal purpose its aboveground part is usually collected during August and September when it is flowering. And then remove the dirt, dry in the sun, and cut into sections.

Artemisia plant is one of perennial grasses, 80 to 150cm high. The erect stems are often branched above the middle part; the puberulent upper part has inflorescence branches. The lower leaves wither and fall during flowering time; central leaves are nearly leathery, oblong or ovate-lanceolate, 7 to 11cm long, and 3 to 4cm wide. Numerous, sessile capitulum gathers on the flowering branch. Achenes are small, oblong, and glabrous. Habitats are forest edge, thickets, and riversides.

Main chemical constituents are arteanoflavone, coumarin, eupatilin, tricin, herniarin, scopatilin, umbelliferone, salvigenin, reynosin, armexifolin, tanaphillin isomet, artanomaloide, arteanomalactone, volatile oil, and so on.

Artemisia health benefits
Artemisia herb is traditionally used for injuries from falls, fractures, contusions and strains. What’s more, today the artemisia essential oil and extract are widely used for the treatments of acute icteric Hepatitis, toothache, Chronic Bronchitis, stomatitis, pharyngitis, tonsillitis, Nephritis, malaria, Conjunctivitis, Otitis Media, sores, Eczema, traumatic bleeding, etc.