This section of the book is from "The Complete Herbalist" by Dr. O. Phelps Brown. Also available from Amazon: The Complete Herbalist: The People Their Own Physicians By The Use Of Nature's Remedies.
MEDICINAL PARTS. The tops and leaves.
Description. -- This is a perennial plant,
with a woody root, branched at the crown, and having numerous fibres below.
The whole herb is covered with close, silky hoariness; the stems are numerous,
bushy, and from one to two feet in height. Their lower part exists
for some years, from which young shoots spring forth every year, decaying
in cold weather. The leaves are alternate, broadish, and blunted,
the lower ones on long petioles, upper ones on shorter, broader, and somewhat
winged ones.
History. -- Wormwood grows nearly all over
the world, from the United States to Siberia. It flowers from June
to September. The tops and leaves are the parts used. The dried
herb, with the flowers, has a whitish-gray appearance, a strong, aromatic
odor, and is extremely bitter to the taste. Alcohol or water takes
up its active principles. It yields what is known to druggists as
Absinthine.
Properties and Uses. -- It is anthelmintic,
tonic, and narcotic. It is used for many diseases, among which may
be enumerated intermittent fever, jaundice, worms, want of appetite, amenorrhoea,
chronic leucorrhoea, obstinate diarrhoea, etc. It is also used externally
in country places as a fomentation for sprains, bruises, and local inflammations.
Taken too often, or in large quantities, it will irritate the stomach,
and dangerously increase the action of the heart and arteries.
Dose. -- Of the powder, ten to twenty grains;
infusion, one or two ounces.
Santonin, a well-known anthelmintic, is the peculiar
principle obtained from the Artemisia Santonica.
Dose. -- Three or four grains, twice a day.
 
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