Wormwood

[Hyakitaki]

Anyone tried wormwood at all...one of my friends is going to buy some and I was just wondering if it was even worth trying.

[TooStonedToType]

the local mexican market sells it in the spice section.  I've smoked a little.  marijuana like effects, but mild.

[RifeHeretic]

Have seeds, germinate rapidly but will die in high humidity

[visionarybear]

very very bitter...
never really tried smoking it or anything, have tried mugwort and various other herbs in that family, didnt find much effect really, but there not wormwood.. actually use shredded mugwort as a rolling aid in herbal ciggies, helps hold all the herbs together and makes rolling a breeze...

[fuzz]

i havent tried wormood, aka Artemisia absinthium of the Artemisia plant genus.
i did grow it though. its a superbe plant to have around. it grows extremely easy and gives those nice and lush greyish-greenish fuzzy plants.

it is bitter to chew, thats for sure. chewing a couple leaves had no effects though.

good insect repellent and stomach helper.

[Jaeda]

Smoked, depending upon quantity, you will find some effects - but on the whole this seems to be one of the least effective methods for partaking of the plant. Eating it... well, if you like a dirt-and-licorice-like flavour, be my guest. Makes an okay tea, no notable effects (though we're talking a proper cuppa here, not some mass infusion with a 10x extract or anything). It's best place is probably in Absinthe, which to my knowledge is illegal everywhere, however there is a brand called Absente that uses Southern Wormwood in lieu of A. absinthium.. however, with a little web-searching you will find a place that has a gift basket with a glass, a bottle of Absente, and a small bottle of A. absinthium tincture *ahem* you figure it out. There is also at least one place that I know of that sells an extract in resinous form - the quality appears to be good.

I'm of the as-natural-as-can-be inclination though and whether it's my herbs or my veggies, I prefer to grow my own so  that I *know* what goes into them.... it's only a few steps to research on the methods of the ridge-runners and with any chemistry-class and cooking (home ecs) knowledge behind you, procuring certain items to set yourself up to recreate with contemporary counterparts a historical "distillation set-up".. for display purposes only of course.

Wormwood and Damiana can make a fine herbal cigarette... Wormwood and Tobacco - not so good, especially if you regularly smoke tobacco because it will throw you off from what you are accustomed to. I'd certainly never "ruin" the more classic smoking herb by mixing Wormwood with it, but there are plenty of alternatives. If you aim to smoke though, I'd definitely recommend mixing it with other more tasty herbs -- Damiana "smoothes out" most harsh-smokes... Various Mints or Monarda could assist with the flavour, amongst other things.

But for all of my lack of using the plant, I must confess, I do want to return to having an entire border full of the plants once I have things set up here like I had elsewhere and had such success. It's a good plant choice for a Moonlight Garden and I've seen plants absolutely covered (like they'd been dipped!) in 1/2-3/4 of an inch of ice over every leaf and stem during one particularly cold winter - and they survived! They looked totally awesome as preserved-in-ice plants - all the more "silver"!

[RifeHeretic]

From my understanding, Absinthe was only prohibited from sale in stores. There are tons of stores selling Absinthe with wormwood. Absente is a language difference.

Here's a google search:
http://www.google.com/search?client=fir ... gle+Search

[Jaeda]

My understanding/info is just the contrary.. Absinthe having been outlawed a looooong time ago. Absente on the other hand, is a brand name... here's their site:
http://crillonimporters.com/Entr2-Absente.html

The ban came down because of - presumably - the thujones that they prefer to refer to as neurotoxins (makes it sound more menacing, doesn't it?)... it's kind of like Ouzo .. while Ouzo I believe is still the national drink of Greece... you can't get Ouzo commercially (to my knowledge) with opium in it (which is how it was originally made). I had a friend in Greece who had a bottle that contained it but found out real quick he couldn't take it out of the country. Oops!

Of course the Green Fairy and Chasing the Dragon also go hand in hand... a classic ritual of preparing and serving was to apply a few drops of laudanum (tincture of opium) onto the sugar disk (usually a disk then, or a large rectangle - more than what one finds in a standard sugar cube anymore), alighting it (the alcohol of the laudanum would burn, resulting in altering some of the raw opium into morphine and also melt some of the sugar), and then - when burned out or blown out - dumping it into the glass, mixing it up... and by one's choice adding water or not.

But "the real thing" has been banned in every country I know of where it was once so incredibly popular with "high society folks" and artists/authors. I'm sure there are some countries out there where the real thing is still allowed or has never been of a concern to their respective governments, but I don't know which countries they would be.

There's oodles and oodles of absinthe recipes for making your own though - but if one goes down that road they must know that it is a) illegal and b) distilling can be dangerous. Maybe not as dangerous as what these dimwits do in meth labs, but it still has its inherent risks - ask any old timer who made their own moonshine... it was once very common to see "unexplained" explosions in the hillsides when something went awry.

I loathe the licorice-like flavour so much myself though that the only way I'd find myself partaking of absinthe were if it were the real deal... I'll stick to my other tea rituals I suspect....

[RifeHeretic]

Hmm, I dont know, Jaeda, it just seems like I'm seeing the real thing being sold all over Europe and the interenet, claiming to contain high Thujone content.

Yes, thujone is a nuerotoxin. There was some story about a kid who ordered a vial and killed himself with it. Though, I dont know how much he took.

Hmm, some Ouzo would be delicous right now  :wink:

Rife

[Jaeda]

I've seen a lot being marketed as absinthe, but all the ones I checked into (for a friend, me and my anti-licorice thing and all) revealed it wasn't what she was aiming for. She did buy the Absente brand and she likes it... but she also likes Chartreuse.

Killed himself with it? Crikey... that's bad.

Different countries no doubt have different laws... of that I am sure! I just know that unless someone wasn't paying attention, no matter where it was ordered from, "the real thing" wouldn't make it through customs to enter the US. The Absente brand talks about, I believe, a lower level of thujones in the Southern Wormwood, and they talk about it being refined - like perhaps in their processing they are removing or neutralizing. There may be an allowable/legal limit on the amount of thujone - which would make sense since you can perfectly legally purchase A. absinthium tincture. But it's no fluke that that one gift basket I referred to includes that tincture along with a bottle of the Absente... I have absolutely no doubts that the hint there is to add the tincture to the bottle to boost the thujone level.

Now Ouzo.. that's another one that I haven't any taste for. Of course then again, I won't touch anise seed unless I've got a really nasty sore throat or cough.

Why is it "the good stuff" always tastes so nasty? LOL

[Hyakitaki]

Hmmm thanks a ton for the information everyone.... From what i've been hearing it's that absinthe doesn't have strong effects, they are mild background at best.  Still I am intrigued to try it out, it could take me a little bit of time because even $20.00 is a lot to me right now.  I will definatly share the experiance with everyone when I experiance it.

[Jaeda]

You have to remember that the main thing with Wormwood and subsequently Absinthe, is thujone... it is it's own thing... you can't really compare it to other noteworthy actives... while you can compare Pepsi to Coca-cola, you can't compare thujone to thc. That would be like comparing caffeine to baking soda.... While many actives or plants might parallel one another, each is unique.

[visionarybear]

absinthe is legal in new zealand but dont thin many have high levels of thujone in em, more for the 89.9% ethanol..a shot that will put hair on your chest...

salvia officinalis (cooking sage) also contains thujone but unsure of relative concentrations..

opium in alcohol? now that sounds like a 'good' idea... go the greeks