Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile
Artemisia abrotanum
Also known as Lad's Love, Old Man
Pronounced Southernwood: SUTH-ern-wood. Artemisia abrotanum: ar-teh-MEE-zee-uh ab-roh-TAY-num.
Warm, dry, and bitter-aromatic: a worm-expelling, menses-provoking, bile-moving bitter stimulant that wakes and tones a cold, damp, torpid, atonic digestion and a sluggish liver.
Contraindicated in pregnancy. Southernwood's long and consistent traditional use is as an emmenagogue and uterine stimulant to bring on suppressed menses, and it carries a reputed abortifacient action; on that basis modern botanical-safety references place it among the herbs to avoid in pregnancy. It also contains thujone, a compound restricted in pregnancy. No controlled human safety data overturn this precaution, so it should not be used in any medicinal amount during pregnancy. Sources: AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook (2nd ed.), which contraindicates emmenagogue and uterine-stimulant Artemisia species in pregnancy; Brinker, Herbal Contraindications and Drug Interactions (emmenagogues contraindicated in pregnancy); Mills and Bone, The Essential Guide to Herbal Safety.
Avoid during breastfeeding. There are no reliable modern data on the transfer of southernwood's constituents into breast milk or on effects in the nursing infant, and the thujone content argues for caution; standard references discourage medicinal use of thujone-bearing Artemisia species while nursing. Use no medicinal amount during lactation unless directed by a qualified practitioner. Sources: AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook (2nd ed.); Mills and Bone, The Essential Guide to Herbal Safety.
Traditionally southernwood was given to children in small sweetened doses to expel threadworms, one of its oldest uses; nonetheless, because the herb contains thujone and modern pediatric safety and dosing data are lacking, it should be used in children only under qualified supervision, at reduced, short-course doses of the dilute herb (tea or low-dose tincture), never the essential oil. Sources: AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook (2nd ed.); traditional use per Grieve, A Modern Herbal (1931); Bown, RHS Encyclopedia of Herbs and Their Uses.
Southernwood is a thujone-bearing Artemisia, and its cautions turn on that volatile oil. Depending on chemotype the essential oil can be high in thujone (a central-nervous stimulant and, in excess, a neurotoxin and convulsant), so the herb should be used in ordinary culinary-to-medicinal amounts, not in large or prolonged doses, and the concentrated essential oil should not be taken internally. Avoid in epilepsy and other seizure disorders. As an Asteraceae member it can provoke contact dermatitis and allergic reactions in sensitive people, especially those allergic to ragweed, chamomile, or other daisies. Its bitterness and dryness can aggravate dry, depleted, or overheated constitutions. Because its emmenagogue, uterus-stimulating reputation is strong and long-standing, it is firmly contraindicated in pregnancy (see safety fields). Modern clinical safety and dosing data are limited, so keep to conservative doses and short courses.
Pregnancy, absolutely, on its emmenagogue, uterus-stimulating, reputedly abortifacient action (see safety fields). Lactation, on insufficient data and thujone content. Epilepsy and other seizure disorders, given the proconvulsant thujone in the volatile oil. Known allergy to ragweed or other Asteraceae (risk of cross-sensitivity and dermatitis). Concurrent heavy alcohol use, which can amplify thujone neurotoxicity. Do not take the concentrated essential oil internally. Any unexplained amenorrhea should be evaluated, and pregnancy excluded, before an emmenagogue is used.
Not a species of conservation concern. Southernwood is a cultivated garden perennial, easily propagated from softwood or semi-ripe cuttings and rarely setting seed in cool climates, and is not wild-harvested at any scale; it carries no United Plant Savers at-risk listing. Prefer organically grown, cultivated garden material; because it spreads readily from cuttings, home or small-farm propagation is both easy and sustainable.
Not a plant of the biblical Near East and not named in canonical Scripture. Southernwood belongs to the Old World Mediterranean and European tradition: it appears in the Greek and Roman materia medica as abrotonon in Dioscorides and Pliny, used in antiquity against intestinal worms and to provoke menstruation, and it passed through the medieval monastic and English cottage-garden traditions as Lad's Love and Old Man. Included here as a cross-traditional Mediterranean-European entry, honestly sourced to that origin rather than to Scripture.
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