Chinese Mugwort

Parts Usually Used

The leaves are the primary part used medicinally, though flowers and aerial parts are also utilized. The essential oil extracted from the leaves is considered the most important medicinal substance. The whole plant is strongly aromatic.

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Chinese mugwort is an upright, greyish, herbaceous perennial plant that grows about one meter tall (30-50 cm in some varieties) with short branches and a creeping rhizome. The plant has stalked leaves that are ovate and deeply divided, covered in small oil-producing glands. The leaves are pubescent above and densely white tomentose below. Lower leaves are about six centimeters long and bipinnate with wide lanceolate lobes and short teeth along the margins.

Upper leaves are smaller and three-partite, while bracteal leaves are simple, linear and lanceolate. The inflorescence is a narrow leafy panicle with pale yellow, tubular flowers clustered in spherical turned-down heads. The central flowers are bisexual while the marginal flowers are female. The plant has a main or single taproot system and typically has a growth cycle from March to October.

Where Found

Chinese mugwort is native to East Asia, including China, Korea, Mongolia, Japan, and the Russian Far East (Amur Oblast, Primorye). It is widely distributed throughout most regions of East Asia, with the best quality specimens coming from Hubei province (China), Yichun Island (Japan), and Jianghua Island (South Korea), where humid climates and suitable soil conditions prevail. The plant is a xerophile, growing on dry mountain slopes, steep river banks, the edges of oak woods, coastal scrub, wasteland, and along road and railway verges.

It performs better and is more aromatic when grown on poor, dry soil. It prefers dry soil conditions overall.

Medicinal Properties

Chinese mugwort has been extensively studied and shown to possess numerous medicinal properties including antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antioxidant, anti-cancer, cardiovascular protective, antidiabetic, immune system modulating, anti-fatigue, and insecticidal effects. In traditional Chinese medicine, the leaves are considered to have bitter, pungent and warm properties and are associated with the liver, spleen and kidney meridians.

The herb is believed to increase blood supply to the pelvic region, stimulate menstruation, and help treat infertility, dysmenorrhea, asthma, and coughs. Modern research has demonstrated that Chinese mugwort essential oil suppresses inflammatory responses by inhibiting JAK/STAT signaling pathways, shows antimicrobial activity against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, exhibits antioxidant properties through free radical scavenging, and displays anti-cancer effects through multiple mechanisms including apoptosis induction.

Biochemical Information

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Legends, Myths and Stories

Chinese mugwort is known as the “longevity grass” in eastern countries for its warm effect to cure many cold diseases. It has been used in medicine, food, bathing, moxibustion, and fumigation for more than two thousand years and has become a cultural symbol of the Dragon Boat Festival in China. The fine fibers of the plant have traditionally been used as a binding agent for seal stamping paste, with the ability to hold oil and cinnabar pigment without drying for decades.

These fibers allow stamp images to remain stable without blurring, and no other fiber is said to surpass Chinese mugwort in these qualities. The stamps have been held in deep esteem with thousands of years of use in China, adorning documents, calligraphy, and artwork.

Uses

Historical herbal traditions utilized Chinese mugwort for a variety of complaints, including stomach discomfort, urinary inflammation, menstrual symptoms, dysmenorrhea, hemorrhage, and abdominal pain. Traditional practitioners also turned to the plant for respiratory issues such as coughs, asthma, and bronchitis, with leaves sometimes chewed or a volatile leaf oil sprayed toward the throat.

Herbalists valued it as an expectorant, febrifuge, and styptic, and applied it for skin conditions like eczema. In traditional Chinese healing, the herb was extensively employed in moxibustion, where dried plant material was formed into cones, sticks, or compressed balls, burned to warm specific points, or placed atop acupuncture needles to heat the target area. Beyond medicinal preparations, the plant had traditional culinary uses in the making of pastries, breads, dumplings, and cakes, and was processed into teas, wines, or combined with rice.

Historically, it was also employed as a fragrant bathing additive, an air purifier, and a mosquito repellent.

How Sold

Chinese mugwort is available commercially in various forms: Dried leaves for traditional preparation Essential oil extracts Powder forms Water extracts Capsules and tablets Teas and herbal blends Health products and dietary supplements