White mugwort

Dark, clotted, painful periods or a period that has stopped after a shock or chill, with a purplish tongue.

Postpartum lower abdominal pain with scanty dark lochia where a gentle blood mover that can be taken as food is wanted.

Overview. White mugwort is a tall, clump-forming Artemisia of the moist hills of southern and central China and northern Southeast Asia, with dark green divided leaves and plumes of small creamy flowers in late summer; it is also grown in Western gardens as an ornamental. The whole aerial plant is used. In southern China it is a folk and regional medicine known as bai bao hao or Guangdong liu ji nu, where it stands in for the classical blood-moving herb liu ji nu, and in Guangdong, Guangxi, Thailand and Vietnam the tender shoots are eaten as a vegetable and simmered in soups for women after childbirth.

Clinical Notes. This is a mild, food-grade blood mover with a gynecological focus. Use it in the way southern Chinese practice does: decocted for stagnant, painful or absent periods and for postpartum pain with scanty lochia, often combined with dang gui, chuan xiong and yi mu cao, and as a fresh or dried herb simmered with chicken or pork in a postpartum soup.

Chinese Medicine Profile. Temperature: neutral to slightly warm. Taste: bitter, slightly acrid, sweet. Channels: Liver, Spleen. Actions: Invigorates blood and dispels stasis; Regulates menstruation and relieves pain; Reduces swelling and promotes healing of traumatic injury; Clears damp-heat and mildly drains dampness; Harmonizes the middle and stimulates appetite when eaten as a vegetable.