Western wormwood

Griping abdominal cramps with loose stools after questionable food or water, in a patient who runs cold and has a coated tongue.

The digestive complaint that traditional Mexican practice calls empacho: heaviness, bloating and pain after food, with loss of appetite.

Scanty, painful periods with cold cramping in a woman whose digestion is also sluggish.

Overview. Western wormwood is a silvery, spreading Artemisia of prairies, roadsides and dry slopes across most of North America from Canada to central Mexico, with several subspecies including the Mexican estafiate. The leafy tops are the medicine. It is one of the sacred plants of the Plains and Southwestern nations, burned for cleansing and used for stomach complaints, fevers, women's conditions and aching joints, and in Mexico estafiate remains one of the most widely sold home remedies for stomach pain, diarrhea, parasites and diabetes.

Clinical Notes. Use this where a bitter, warming, antiseptic gut herb is wanted. It is the first-choice Artemisia in Mexican and Southwestern practice for stomach cramps, colic, nausea and loose stools, and the laboratory evidence of activity against Giardia and Entamoeba supports its traditional place in travelers' diarrhea and suspected protozoal infection, as an adjunct to diagnosis and conventional treatment rather than a replacement.