Wormwood Oil Health Benefits

The health benefits of Wormwood Essential Oil can be attributed to its properties as an anti-helmitic, cholagogue, deodorant, digestive, emenagogue, febrifuge, insecticide, narcotic, vermifuge, and tonic substance. Wormwood is also known as Green Ginger and Absinthium. In the past, it was actually used in alcoholic drinks such as Absinthe (now banned) to add to its taste and intoxication, since wormwood itself has narcotic effects.

The Essential Oil of Wormwood is extracted by steam distillation of its leaves, twigs, and flowering tops and is chiefly composed of alpha thujone, beta thujone, geranyl propionate, linalyl acetate, myrcene, sabinene, trans sabinol, and trans sabinyl acetate.

Health Benefits of Wormwood Essential Oil

Cholagogue:-

Since wormwood essential oil has a cholagogue property, it promotes the discharge of bile from the liver into the stomach and stimulates other discharges as well. This helps in two ways. Firstly, bile, being alkaline or basic in nature, helps in the decomposition or breaking down of food and thereby facilitates digestion. Secondly, it helps neutralize the excess acids in the stomach, thereby giving relief from problems like acidity, ulcers caused due to prolonged acidity, and acidosis.

Deodorant:-

Since this oil is high in thujone content, it has a characteristic smell of that constituent and has an aroma similar to that of Thuja. This justifies its use as a deodorant. However, care should be taken to use it in a very high degree of dilution to avoid excessive inhalation.

Digestive:-

Being a cholagogue, it stimulates the production and secretion of bile and other digestive juices into the stomach. This facilitates digestion, which means that this oil can be used for digestive purposes, but only in extremely low doses.

Emenagogue:-

Its property of stimulating discharges makes wormwood essential oil an emenagogue. It stimulates menstrual discharges and help to open obstructed menstruation. This is very beneficial from the point of view of health since obstructed menstruation can give rise to some critical health problems in women, including uterine tumors and cancer.

Febrifuge:- 

The toxic property of certain components like alpha thujone and beta thujone of Wormwood Essential Oil help fight infections, as they kill microbes and inhibit their growth. They are also fatal for viruses and bacteria, which give fevers. Wormwood essential oil thereby aids in the reduction of fever, making this oil a febrifuge.

Insecticide:-

A substance that is highly poisonous to higher animals and mammals will no doubt be poisonous to some lower animals and insects (excluding those stubborn insects who have either developed resistance to some of the deadliest poisons or are naturally immune against them). So, being poisonous, the Essential Oil of Wormwood serves as an insecticide and an insect repellant.

Effective against worms and parasites:-

Worms and parasites in the body are often the main reason for curtailing the normal growth, especially in children. This is mainly because these foreign bodies absorb the nutrients from the food and restrict the system from gaining the required nourishment. With its Vermifuge property and high toxic effects, wormwood herb and its essential oil is considered as the most powerful natural remedy in killing worms and parasites.

Supports the digestive system:-

Wormwood essential oil nurtures the digestive system and effectively helps in removing the toxic substances known as ama from the body. According to Ayurveda, improper digestion is the root cause for all kinds of illnesses as the undigested food particles turn as toxins and curb the normal functioning of the body.

Alleviates stress and depression:-

Disturbed sleep, insomnia, convulsions, fatigue, nervous afflictions, epileptic attacks and certain other mental disturbances often end up in unwanted stress and deep depression. Wormwood essential oil has a natural narcotic effect that helps in calming your nerves and grants complete relaxation by pacifying the entire system.

Keeps away from fever and infections:- 

Wormwood essential oil is effectual in treating fever due to bacterial and viral infections and this healing property is attributed to the presence of the toxic components like α-thujone and β-thujone, which act as a shield to the body and protects it from microbes and other harmful infections. A research by the Cancer institute on the effectiveness of Complementary and alternative medicine in 2004 witnessed that Wormwood is powerful in treating fever and was used in Malaria treatment. The ancient Africans and Asians used Wormwood to combat malaria and to treat few other mosquito-borne diseases.

Fights against cancer:-

The chemical properties of Wormwood have been proved as a potent cancer treatment by the Bioengineering researchers of the University of Washington. It has been witnessed that this derivative killed almost all the human breast cancer cells exposed to it within a time span of 16 hours. They also said that thiswormwood derivative is “highly toxic to the cancer cells, but has a marginal impact on normal breast cells”.

Enriches the human body:-

The great news is that Wormwood essential oil acts as a tonic to the entire system by stimulating the digestive system, improving the functioning of the circulatory system, strengthening the immune system, acting as a cardiac tonic, fortifying the nervous system and supporting the working of the excretory system, enabling the body to expel the unwanted toxic substances and stay vigilant at all times.