Re: Huma - thoughts on Annua vs. Absinthium? Lessons On "Wormwood"...

There are MANY species of Artemesia - it is found naturally in just about every country of the world - it has many "cousins" too. Just a few of the different kinds of Artemesia: herba alba, maritima, filifolia, pallens, anomala, argyi, princeps Pamp (Mugwort), ludoviciana, asiatica, ciane, abbyssinica, inculta, douglasiana, glabella, yacutica, feddi, verlotorum, selengensis, pontica, abrotanum, campestris, cina, dracunculus (Tarragon), vulgaris, annua (Sweet Annie), caapillaris, iudoviciana, afra, tridentata, and scoparia.

Just from reading their names, you can just about figure out where they come from :) Annua comes from Africa - it is a good treatment for malaria - however, they have taken the plant and made it a hybrid to try to make it produce more of the naturally-occuring chemical that is found in it. The chemical in Artmesia annua is called "artemisinin" - in the wild plant - it has a level of .01-.5 % The hybird can produce as much as .63-.70% artemisinin. Making hybrid plants can cause some wierd things to happen genetically to the plant itself - but, that is my opinion. The artemisinin has to be extracted in order for it to become useable (stable) for medicinal purposes - this is also why the extracts are very limited and very expensive at this time. It takes about 3 grams PER DAY of the plant in its natural state for it to be useful. That is a LOT per day.

Anyway, Artemesia absinthium is the one that is "native" to North America. It is the one that can be found growing wild - this is the one that I use in HUMAWORM. It contains "thujone" which is its chemical that kills parasites. The levels of thujone are highest when the plant is before or in full bloom and it does not take very much at all (of the plant) for the thujone levels to be high enough to be used for medicinal purposes.

As for malaria treament - gentian contains more effective naturally-occuring chemicals that will kill plasmodia (the organisms that cause malaria) than anything else out there. I have always felt that it is simply overlooked - it is cheap, widely available, it does not have to be "tampered with" for it to be effective AND it is much stronger than quinine for malaria treatment.

But then again, who could make huge sums of money from something that is available, effective and cheap? Tweet