BEAUTIFUL BOTANICALS: Effects of absinthe led to ‘Green Fairy’ label
Beautiful Botanicals by Joanne Howdle
There are many distinct types of wormwood. Two are famously used to make the alcoholic beverage absinthe – common wormwood (Artimesia absinthium) and vermouth – Roman wormwood (Artimesia pontica).
Absinthe, the green coloured aperitif, became legendary in late 19th century Paris thanks to its consumption by Bohemian artists such as Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (1864-1901) and Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853-1890).
After drinking absinthe, consumers reported psychedelic, mind-altering effects. This led to absinthe often being called “The Green Fairy”.
Common wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) is native to North Africa and temperate regions of Eurasia. It is a herbaceous perennial plant with fibrous roots.
The stems are straight, growing to 0.8–1.5 metres high, grooved, branched, and silvery-green in colour. The leaves of the botanical are spirally arranged, the top of the leaves are a greenish-grey colour, whilst the leaves are white below, covered with silky silvery-white trichomes, and bearing minute oil-producing glands.
The basal leaves are up to 25 centimetres long, bi- to tripinnate with long petioles, with the cauline leaves (those on the stem) smaller, 5–10 centimetres long, less divided, and with short petioles.
The uppermost leaves can be both simple and sessile (without a petiole). The flowers of common wormwood are pale yellow, tubular, and clustered in spherical bent-down heads (capitula), which are in turn clustered in leafy and branched panicles.
Flowering occurs from early summer to early autumn; pollination is anemophilous. The fruit is a small achene. Seed dispersal occurs by gravity.
Roman wormwood (Artimesia pontica) originates in south-eastern Europe. The species name refers to the Pontus area on the shores of the Black Sea. Roman wormwood is less bitter than common wormwood.
It is a vigorous herbaceous perennial making a spreading clump of upright stems to 75 centimetres, clad in dissected, grey-green coloured, highly aromatic leaves, with small grey-yellow coloured flowerheads in panicles at the tips of the stems.
Both Roman and common wormwood are used in traditional medicine, as wormwood is believed to have antifungal, antimicrobial, antidepressant and insecticidal properties. Intensely bitter, common wormwood has been used since ancient times in medicines, specifically as a botanical that helps expel intestinal parasites.
The first written reference to the medicinal use of common wormwood is found in the Ancient Egyptian “Ebers Papyrus”, which dates to circa 1550 BC. The Ancient Greeks used wormwood extracts and wine-soaked wormwood leaves as remedies for many different diseases and there is also evidence of the existence of a wormwood-flavoured wine around this time made by Hippocrates (circa 460-370 BC), who is traditionally referred to as the “Father of Medicine”.
Hippocrates recommended wormwood as a cure for various ailments, including menstrual pain, rheumatism, anaemia, and digestive and flatulence disorders. Pythagoras (circa 570-495 BC), the Greek philosopher and polymath, claimed that wormwood eased childbirth, hence why the genus Artemisia is named after Artemis, the Greek goddess of childbirth.
In Ancient Greece and Rome, wormwood clippings and cuttings were added to chicken nesting boxes to repel lice, mites, and fleas.
Crushed wormwood combined with salt, pepper and cumin is used as a general seasoning in food preparation. The leaves and stems of the botanical are also used to prepare tea. In Britain, Roman wormwood is traditionally used as common bittering agent in the manufacture of ale.
In gin manufacture wormwood is used to add herbaceous, grassy and floral notes to the spirit.
• Joanne Howdle is interpretation and engagement manager at the multi-award-winning Dunnet Bay Distillers Ltd.
