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Artemisia herba-alba
Also called Pyrenean Wormwood
White wormwood is a perennial aromatic shrub from dry Mediterranean steppes and deserts of North Africa, Arabia and southwestern Europe, used in herbal medicine and grazed as fodder. It needs full sun, very well-drained soil and little water.
Artemisia herba-alba, the white wormwood, is a perennial shrub in the genus Artemisia that grows commonly on the dry steppes of the Mediterranean regions in Northern Africa (Saharan Maghreb), Western Asia (Arabian Peninsula) and Southwestern Europe. It is used as an antiseptic and antispasmodic in herbal medicine.
Essential oil of A. herba-alba, from the Sinai Desert, contains mainly 1,8-cineole and appreciable amounts of α- / β-thujone as well as other oxygenated monoterpenes including terpinen-4-ol, camphor and borneol. Davanone, chrysanthenone and cis-chrysanthenol have been described as major constituents in some populations of A. herba-alba from Morocco and Spain. Less common non-head-to-tail monoterpene alcohols have been identified in some populations from Negev desert, such as santolina alcohol and yomogi alcohol.
Several sesquiterpene lactones were found in the aerial parts of A. herba-alba. Mainly, eudesmanolides and germacranolides types were reported in most cases. A variety of flavonoids were also described mainly with methylated (i.e. patuletin) and O-methylated (i.e. hispidulin, cirsilineol) aglycones. The presence of C-glycosides (i.e. isovitexin, schaftoside, isoschaftoside) is also noticeable.
Artemisia herba-alba is good fodder for grazing animals, mainly sheep, and in the Algerian steppes cattle.
Southernwood · Absinthium · African Wormwood · White Mugwort · Sweet sagewort · Hedge Artemisia · Chinese Mugwort · Biennial wormwood · Coastal sagebrush · Capillary Artemisia · Carruth's sagewort · Douglas' sagewort
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Artemisia herba-alba by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
