Healing wormwood (God's tree)
Medicinal wormwood
A tall shrub wormwood divine tree is a shrub from the Asteraceae family. A perennial plant with a household, medicinal and culinary purpose.
Botanical characteristic
Medicinal wormwood, according to the botanical description, is a perennial semi-woody-semi-herbaceous plant that can grow in one place for up to ten years. Artemisia is a member of the Aster family.
In the natural environment, the grass grows in height from 0.5 to 1.2 m.Vegetative organs are represented by non-branching erect tree-like shoots, lignifying practically along the entire length, up to 1.5 cm thick.
Popular names of medicinal herbs - dill tree and divine, also called high wormwood.
The leaves are pinnately dissected, consist of narrow, long filiform lobes, which is why the wormwood bush looks delicate. The lower and middle tier of foliage has petioles.
Paniculate yellow inflorescences are formed from baskets collected by small (2-3 mm in diameter) spherical flowers. The flowering period occurs at the end of July - August. Achene forms from August to October.
Growing geography
Place of origin - Turkish median territory (Anatolia), eastern Mediterranean. On the territory of Russia, it is present in the middle lane, in rare cases in the northern areas, in the North Caucasian regions, in the southern regions of Western Siberia and in the Altai Territory.
God's tree prefers to grow in a temperate zone in the Northern Hemisphere.
The main habitats are places near water, flood meadows in river floodplains. It is found along the roadway, in places where people live, in forests and on birch edges. Often forms thickets.
Practical use
The tree of God has found a number of practical applications.
Farm
The medicinal wormwood herb has a pleasant smell, reminiscent of dill, coniferous and lemon aromas, therefore it acts as a natural air freshener.
Medicine
Medicinal tinctures are made from wormwood
The chemical composition of the wormwood shrub contains essential oil, bitter substances, organic acids, resins and the alkaloid abrotanin, which allows it to be used for medicinal purposes:
- homeopathy uses it in the form of an extract obtained from fresh foliage, using it to treat hypertension, anemia;
- medicinal preparations used in the fight against epileptic seizures and tuberculous meningitis are made from the roots of the plant;
- with inflorescences of wormwood, oil is infused (100 grams of flowers per 1 glass of olive oil), which is an effective folk remedy for colds and viral diseases;
- herbal decoctions (1 tsp per 0.25 l of water) are used to cleanse the body.
All vegetative parts of the wormwood plant - roots, foliage, stems and inflorescences - are endowed with useful properties. Wormwood brooms are used in the bath in the process of steaming, which relieves muscle tension and neutralizes head cramps.
It is often included in medicinal preparations along with cranberries, sage and mint, which further increases the effectiveness of the medicinal properties of the wormwood plant.
Cooking
Young shoots of medicinal wormwood are used fresh in the preparation of culinary dishes, limiting in quantity. Most often it acts as a flavored flavor for confectionery and liqueurs.
To use the bitter wormwood of the divine tree as a spice, it is preliminarily subjected to drying, in which the foliage loses its bitterness.
In dry form, the herb ground into a powdery mass is added to meat dishes. It acts as an ingredient in bread kneading, which provides the bread with a specific flavor. Used as a flavoring agent in table vinegars and sauces.
Landscape design
Easy to plant and care for when growing, wormwood medicinal is often used in landscape design as an ornamental plant, acting as a means of decorating park and garden areas, urban areas and household plots.
Regular pruning of the plant gives it a compact, spherical shape. Reproduction is carried out in traditional ways, including by dividing, propagating by seeds and planting cuttings.
Conclusion
God's tree, or medicinal wormwood, is a semi-shrub with a wide geography of distribution. Unpretentious in planting and care, used in landscape design. It is used for medicinal purposes and for culinary purposes as a condiment.