African wormwood (Artemisia afra) . Featured plant at Towerkop Nursery .

African wormwood

Called wormwood due to its internal worm-expelling properties in the ancient Greek text of Dioscorides, Artemisia afra is a highly aromatic plant known as Wormwood.Treats a wide variety of ailments such as coughs, colds and influenza but also fever, loss of appetite, colic, headache, earache, malaria fever and intestinal worms amongst others. It has also been used in natural insecticide sprays and as a moth repellent.

Description

Artemisia afra grows in thick, bushy, slightly untidy clumps, usually with tall stems up to 2m high, but sometimes as low as 0.6m. The stems are thick and woody at the base, becoming thinner and softer towards the top. Many smaller side branches shoot from the main stems. The stems are ribbed with strong swollen lines that run all the way up. The soft leaves are finely divided, almost fern-like. The upper surface of the leaves is dark green whereas the undersides and the stems are covered with small white hairs, which give the shrub the characteristic overall grey 

Growing

A. afra flowers in late summer, from March to May. The individual creamy yellow flowers are small (3-4 mm in diameter), nodding and crowded at the tips of the branches. Very typical of A. afra is the strong, sticky sweet smell that it exudes when touched or cut. Artemisia afra needs full sun and heavy pruning in winter to encourage new lush growth in spring. Actively growing in the summer months, it should be able to take quite low temperatures during the winter months. Fast-growing, established shrubs are very tough and will slowly spread to form thicker clumps. New plants can be propagated by division or from cuttings that root easily in spring and summer. Seed can be sown in spring or summer. Essential oil Essential oil extracts of Artemisia afra are prepared by steam distillation using twigs and blossoms. Extracts contain the following components (via gas chromatography) which are typical of extracts of the Artemisia genus:

• α-thujone 52.9%
• β-thujone 15.07%
• 1,8 cineole 10.66%
• camphor 5.72%
• germacrene 1.60%
• δ-cadinene 1.16%
• α-terpineol 0.96%
• e-chrysanthenyl acetate 0.78%
• camphene 0.71%
• β-pinene 0.51%
• α-pinene 0.46%
• trans-β-ocimene 0.45%
• myrcene 0.22%