Mugwort with yellow flowers: its use in traditional Chinese medicine

Mugwort with yellow flowers (Houang-Houa Hao), Artemisia annua Linn.

Yellow-flowered mugwort grows in vacant lots or along roadsides.

In China, the yellow flowers of Artemisia are used in fumigations against disease-carrying insects and, more particularly, against mosquitoes. The stems recommended in the decoction are stomach.

Folk medicine recommends the juice against scabies and various dermatoses.

Mugwort leaves (Artemisia) and flower tops are collected in two different seasons.

When it comes to the plant used to make lint and moxa, it is in spring that it will have to be harvested, and the leaves at this time are covered with a longer and silkier down. O. Debeaux (Tche-fou, 1860) specifies that "for pharmaceutical use, this plant should be harvested at the time of fruiting, ie in early autumn".

In general, plants are harvested at the time of flowering and roots, stems, leaves, flowers and seeds are almost always used separately. The wood, stems and bark of trees with a bitter or aromatic taste, dyed wood, etc., are not cut until the tree is fully developed.

The most famous mugwort was (is it?) Produced in K'i district, Hou-pei province, birthplace of Li Che-tchen. It has thick, furry leaves that are pulled off on the fifth moon. They are sun-dried. Its desiccation is completed with a pestle. Moxa is applied directly to the pain site. The objective is to stimulate the local sensory nerve that transmits the excitation to the centers where it reaches the motor nerves. These dilate blood vessels, activate the blood course; infiltrations and edema decrease, spasms, pain and paresthesia heal (Tch’eng Tan-ngan, 1955).

Dr. A. Husson informed us that the deviation concerns inflammatory pain resulting from blood congestion or stasis. The therapeutic goal is achieved by moxibustion. Vascular nerves are stimulated.