This product is the whole herb of the annual plant Sweet Wormwood (Artemisia annua L.) from the Asteraceae family. It is widely distributed throughout the country. It is harvested in summer and autumn, used fresh or dried in the shade, and cut into sections for medicinal purposes.

The related plant Japanese Wormwood Herb (A. japonica Thunb.) is also used as Sweet Wormwood in some regions of China, with similar functions to Sweet Wormwood.

bubble_chart Properties and Meridians

Bitter and acrid, cold. Act on liver, gallbladder and kidney meridians.

bubble_chart Efficacy

Clear deficiency heat, relieve steaming bone fever, relieve summer heat, and prevent malaria attacks.

bubble_chart Indications

1. Used for warm pathogen damaging yin, night fever abating at dawn. This product clears heat with bitter cold, disperses with pungent fragrance, and is particularly effective in clearing and dispersing latent heat in the yin aspect. Therefore, it can treat the late stage of warm disease [third stage], residual heat not cleared, night fever abating at dawn, fever subsiding without sweating, or persistent low-grade fever after Rebing. It is often used in combination with turtle carapace, Anemarrhena, and moutan bark, such as in Sweet Wormwood and Turtle Shell Decoction.
2. Used for yin-deficiency fever, steaming bone fever due to overexertion. This product has the effect of reducing deficiency heat and eliminating steaming bone fever. It is often used in combination with Starwort Root, Neopicrorhiza, Anemarrhena, and turtle carapace, such as in Bone-Clearing Powder.
3. Used for summer-heat pathogen, fever, headache, and thirst. This product is fragrant and dispersing, and is particularly effective in relieving summer-heat. Therefore, it can treat the above symptoms caused by summer-heat pathogen. It is often used in combination with Forsythia, Poria, Talc, and Ricepaperplant Pith.
4. Used for malaria with alternating chills and fever. This product has the function of preventing malaria attacks and relieving the chills and fever of malaria. It can be used alone in a large dose of fresh product, pounded and taken as juice, or used in combination with Cassia Central Bark, Astragalus Root, Talc, and Indigo according to the syndrome.

bubble_chart Documentation

1. Bencao Gangmu: "Treats malaria with chills and fever."
2. Bencao Xinbian: "Reduces summer heat."
3. Yilin Zuanyao Tanyuan: "Clears blood dampness stroke heat, treats jaundice and stagnant fire discomfort."

bubble_chart Usage and Dosage

Decoct 3-10g, not suitable for prolonged decoction; or use fresh juice extracted by squeezing.

bubble_chart Cautions and Contraindications

Spleen-stomach weakness, diarrhea due to intestinal efflux should be avoided.

bubble_chart Modern Pharmacology

This product contains volatile oils and other components. Both Sweet Wormwood and Artemisia annua contain the antimalarial component—artemisinin. Both the crude drug and artemisinin can inhibit the development of malaria parasites and directly kill them. It also has certain effects on lowering blood pressure, reducing fever, and inhibiting skin fungi. The volatile oil has antitussive, expectorant, and antiasthmatic effects. The chloroform extract of the water decoction of Artemisia annua has a significant choleretic effect on rats. Artemisinin has a significant killing effect on adult schistosomes in mice.