by Matvey Yudov
08/11/23 13:09:02 ( 21 comments )

Wormwood is a symbol of bitterness. The genus Wormwood of the Aster family (among wormwood's relatives are chamomile, tagetes, yarrow, fenugreek, immortelle, and chrysanthemum) counts more than 400 species, of which about 180 can be found in the Northern Hemisphere, and most of them have an extremely bitter taste. The ancient Greek name for wormwood - ἀψίνθιον, ἄψινθος - according to one interpretation, means "unfit for drinking."

Many species of wormwood have important medicinal value, some are used in cooking, and some are suitable for extracting essential oils for perfumery. Let us recall the most important of them.
 

Artemisia absinthium

Common wormwood is perhaps the most known herb of the genus Wormwood. It originates in Southern Europe and Northern Africa. Common wormwood is one of the oldest medicinal plants known to man; it is used (both externally and internally) to treat a wide variety of diseases. Bitter wormwood has proven itself as an insecticide and insect repellent, which is reflected in its name. The triterpene lactone, absinthine, primarily cause the bitter taste of wormwood.

Wormwood is a key ingredient in absinthe, a popular strong alcoholic beverage. The unique special effects (color perception changes, hallucinations) that absinthe presumably causes are often attributed to the content of a substance called thujone in wormwood (first isolated from thuja essential oil).

This thesis has not been convincingly proven. What is certain is that thujone is a rather toxic compound (no more than 35 mg of thujone per liter is allowed in alcoholic beverages) and the hallucinogenic effect of absinthe is probably caused only by a large amount of alcohol. Thujone has a woody cedar-camphor odor with herbaceous, minty nuances.
 

The theme of absinthe with its sweet-bitter contrast (usually bitterness of wormwood is contrasted with sweet anise) is popular in perfumery, especially niche perfumery: L'Artisan Parfumeur, Nasomatto, Jo Malone London, Les Liquides Imaginaires, Histoires de Parfums, Franck Boclet, Marc Buxton, Serge Lutens and many others, including Avon and Christian Lacroix collaborations (Absynthe Him and Absynthe Her) have absinthe-themed perfume fantasies. And the Absolument Parfumeur brand was born thanks to this drink.

Another important wormwood-based drink is vermouth (from German Wermut - wormwood). It is a wine, often fortified, flavored with wormwood and other herbs.

Bitter wormwood essential oil is obtained by steam distillation of dried plants collected during flowering. The yield is 0.2-0.4%. Bitter wormwood oil is a viscous green liquid with brown or bluish tones, which has a sharp, bitter odor. The main components of the oil are thujones and their derivatives (thujyl alcohol, thujyl acetate), terpenes (germacrene, caryophyllene), alcohols and phenols (linalool, geraniol, citronellol, eugenol, carvacrol, thymol). During distillation, azulenes are also formed, which gives the oil a blue color.

There are other chemotypes of this plant. For example, in Italy and the Western Alps (above 1000 meters), there is wormwood, whose essential oil is dominated by cis-epoxy-ocimene and whose α-thujone content is very low. A chemotype with a high content of chrysanthenyl acetate and sabinyl acetate originates in France. But plants with a mixed chemotype are more common.
 

Artemisia pontica

Artemisia pontica, also known as Roman wormwood or small absinthe, can be considered quite close to Artemisia bitter. It is often found in the Black Sea and Central Asia. The essential oil obtained from Artemisia pontica is close in composition to that of bitter wormwood (thujones, thujol, thujyl acetate, azulenes) but the yield is usually lower - about 0.1%.

Artemisia pontica is used in cooking, as well as a medicinal and ornamental plant. By the way, the Latin name of the genus Artemisia comes from the Greek ἀρτεμισία - the plant was so named in honor of the goddess Artemis - daughter of Zeus, the young goddess of hunting, fertility and patroness of childbearing (Ἄρτεμις - in turn from the Greek ἀρτεμής, which means "healthy").
 

Artemisia annua

Artemisia annua (sweet wormwood, sweet annie, sweet sagewort, annual mugwort or annual wormwood) grows in Southern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and it is cultivated in the Balkan Peninsula, Bulgaria. In Crimea, in the Nikitsky Botanical Garden serious work has been carried out to develop cultivated varieties with a high essential oil content.

Essential oil of sweet wormwood is obtained by steam distillation from wild and cultivated plants. The crop is harvested just before the flowers open - at this time the yield of essential oil is in its pick (0.3% -1%). Essential oil is a mobile light yellow liquid (sometimes with a green tinge) with a pleasant sweetish-balsamic spicy aroma reminiscent of basil, but with a brighter fresh green herbaceous note, with bitter pine and characteristic wormwood tones.

The composition of the essential oil of annual wormwood varies quite widely. The main components are terpenes and their oxygen-containing derivatives: cineol, pinene, borneol, isoborneol, methyl chavicol, camphene, cadinene, caryophyllene, camphor, thujyl acetate. The essential oil from Crimea contains large amounts of artemisia ketone and artemisia alcohol.

In 1972, Chinese pharmacologist Tu Youyou isolated artemisinin from the annual wormwood - this substance and its derivatives can now be considered the main drug against malaria. In 2015, Tu Yu was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for his discovery.
 

Artemisia vulgaris

Artemisia vulgaris, aka the common mugwort, is native to Eastern Europe, but it is now found everywhere in relatively cool regions – Central and Southeastern Europe, India, China, and Japan.

The method of steam distillation from dried plants produces essential oil, mainly in France (essence d'Armoise) but also in Morocco, Germany, Hungary, India, and China. The essential oil of common mugwort is an almost colorless or light yellow mobile liquid, very different from the blue-green oils of bitter wormwood and white wormwood. The oil has a very strong fresh camphorous odor, green, sweet-bitter, with hints of pine needles and aromatic herbs (rosemary, sage). In the base notes, the oil takes on a very pleasant sweet and herbal character, slightly reminiscent of tea. Common wormwood oil fits perfectly into the classic fougere structure and blends well with aromatic herbs, lavender, coumarin, oak moss, and coniferous and woody materials.

The chemical composition of the essential oil varies quite a bit, with pinene, camphor, caryophyllene, camphene, germacrene, 1,8-cineole (eucalyptol), thujone, borneol, sabinene, myrcene, menthol and others among its main components.
 

Artemisia dracunculus

Artemisia dracunculus, or tarragon, is one of the few species of wormwood that does not have a bitter taste. The herb is used as a spice and as the main ingredient of Tarhun soda.

The essential oil is a yellow or green liquid with a yield of up to 0.8% obtained by steam distillation. The odor of the oil is fresh, herbaceous-aromatic, with a sweet anise-basil character. The main component of tarragon essential oil is methyl chavicol, or tarragol. The oil of plants grown in France and Germany contains up to 90% of this substance. In Russia, plants accumulate methyl eugenol and methyl isoeugenol. Some tarragon plants have a high content of elemicin and isoelemicin. There are also plants whose essential oil contains large amounts of anethole, an isomer of estragol.

Like other sweet and aromatic anise notes, tarragon perfectly blends with vetiver, and there are many good examples: Guerlain Vetiver Extreme, Prada Infusion de Vetiver, Jo Malone London Vetyver, Amouage Jubilation 25, Cabochard Gres, L'Eau d'Issey Pour Homme, L .T.. Piver Vetiver, Nicolai Parfumeur Createur Baladin, L'Artisan Parfumeur Coeur de Vetiver Sacre, Etro Shaal Nur, Jacques Fath Green Water and more.

The tarragon note fits perfectly into fougere compositions (Nikos Sculpture, Versace The Dreamer, Givenchy π and Xeryus Rouge, cK Calvin, Paco Rabanne XS, D&G Pour Homme, Van Cleef & Arpels Tsar, Honore des Pres Nu Green) and chypres (Guerlain Sous le Vent, Tom Ford Moss Breches, Roja Dove Diaghilev, Jean Patou 1000, Les Indemodables Chypre Azural).

There is a chance to meet tarragon in rather unexpected arrangements, as, for example, in Amouage Dia, Prada (Amber), L'Artisan Parfumeur Fleur de Carotte, Christian Lacroix, Penhaligon's LP №9, Jo Malone French Lime Blossom, Le Galion Whip and others.

Artemisia herba-alba

The White Wormwood is easily recognized by its silver-gray leaves covered with fine silk hairs. The essential oil of this plant is produced in Morocco and Tunisia, it has a powerful bitter herbaceous odor. Depending on the chemotype, the content of 1,8-cineole and camphor (up to 60%) varies; the oil also contains camphene, thujones, borneol, thymol, and menthol.

White wormwood essential oil is a product of multi-tonnage production, but the main use of this material is not in perfumery but in medicine.

Artemisia balchanorum

Artemisia balchanorum, the lemon wormwood, was first described by the Soviet botanist Hippolit Mikhailovich Krascheninnikov in 1928 when he discovered it in the Turkmen mountains Bolshoi Balkhan. Later, in 1939 another close endemic species was found - Artemisia badghysi Krasch. et. Lincz.). By selection in Crimea, cultivated varieties were obtained, whose essential oil has a pleasant lemon odor with floral aspects and fruity notes (orange, pineapple). This essential oil contains high amounts of citral (in wild wormwood, about 15%, cultivated varieties, 30-70%), linalool (35-50%), geraniol (25-45%), and geranyl acetate. Concrete and absolute are also produced by solvent extraction.

The spoonful of tar that may spoil this product comes from free acids (oleic and isovaleric) which might give the oil rancid notes and thujone - their content in the plant increases with age.

The essential oil of lemon wormwood is also used to extract individual substances: citral (it is needed not only in perfumery but also for vitamin A production) and linalool.

Artemisia pallens

Davana  is another unusual member of the Wormwood genus. Davana grows and is cultivated in South India and is used to produce a very fragrant essential oil with a fruity (something reminiscent of apricot) woody-balsamic odor. In the 60s, perfumers recognized and fell in love with davana.
 

Currant+davana is a very common combination and can be found in many fragrances: Mark Buxton Sexual Healing, Armani Si and especially Armani Si Intense, Le Cercle des Parfumeurs Createurs Vague de Folie Verte, Amouage Sunshine, Onyrico Michelangelo, L'Occitane Cassis Rhubarbe, The Vagabond Prince Land Of Warriors, Comptoir Sud Pacifique Pomelo Fizz, Oriflame Petal Quatz, Jacques Fath Rosso Epicureo, MDCI Parfums Peche Cardinal, Bvlgari Splendida Tubereuse Mystique and many others.

It is, of course, easy to encounter davana without a black currant profile, often in fruity, apricot/osmanthus/suede compositions: Tom Ford Bitter Peach, Chloé Nomade Absolu de Parfum, Idole d'Armani, Jo Malone London Honeysuckle & Davana, Kilian Dark Lord, Jacques Zolty Severo, for example, Plume Impression Murmure d'Ete and Dualite Magnifique, Ex Idolo Lucid Dream, Molton Brown Muddled Plum, Xerjoff Muse, Paco Rabanne Strong Me, pH Fragrances Magnolia & Peony of Silk and others.

The main component of davana essential oil is the so-called davanone, or 2-methyl-2-vinyl-5-(3-oxo-6-methyl-5-hepten-2-yl)-tetrahydrofuran, and its derivatives. The essential oil contains cinnamic acid esters, benzaldehyde, linalool, caryophyllene, farnesol, and other substances.

Artemisia scoparia

Artemisia scoparia, the capillary or redstem wormwood, is common in temperate climates. Essential oil with a yield of up to 0.8% is obtained by steam distillation - it is an orange or red-brown liquid with a peculiar spicy clove-like odor.

The chemical composition of wormwood essential oil is unique: its main component is capillene, a substance with two triple bonds, which is responsible for the bright color. The odor of capillene is very pungent, sweet, and herbaceous-anise. Over time, capillene oxidizes and polymerizes, turning the oil into a thick, viscous, dark substance. The oil also contains eugenol, caryophyllene, thymol, and pinene.

Earlier, the essential oil of this plant was used to produce the medicinal substance artemisol.

Artemisia taurica

Artemisia taurica, or Crimean Artemisia, grows and is cultivated (varieties Kimmeria, Alupka), as it is easy to guess, in the Crimea and The North Caucasus. Probably, it appeared as a hybrid of bitter wormwood and common wormwood.

Maximilian Voloshin meant this particular wormwood specie when he wrote "The bitter spirit of wormwood" in his Wormwood (Cimmerian Twilight I) poem. 

Essential oil - a mobile light-yellow liquid - contains mainly thujones (more than 80%), pinene, 1,8-cineole, sabinol, and camphor. The plant is quite poisonous, especially to animals.

Artemisia abrotanum

Artemisia abrotanum (southernwood, southernwood, lad's love, or southern wormwood) has an interesting and pleasant aroma reminiscent of aniseed/dill, pine, and citrus. In nature, it grows in Asia Minor and the Eastern Mediterranean; in Russia, it is found in the European part, in the North Caucasus, in the south of Western Siberia, and the Altai.

The essential oil is a pale yellow liquid with a fresh woody-fruity odor. The main component is 1,8-cineole (more than 50%). It contains camphor, camphene, eugenol (sometimes methyl eugenol), thymol, pinene, santalols; there are no thujones in the composition.

As I mentioned at the beginning, there are more than 400 species of Artemisia, the essential oil is obtained not only from those plants already mentioned but on a small scale from rarer varieties, including Artemisia afra, Artemisia maritima, Artemisia albula, Artemisia argyi, Artemisia aromatica, Artemisia campestris, Artemisia deserti, Artemisia diffusa, Artemisia ludoviciana, Artemisia glauca, Artemisia gypsacea, Artemisia capillaris, Artemisia gmelinii, Artemisia santolina, Artemisia tridentata, Artemisia vestita.

The biblical wormwood is a metaphor for bitterness, a symbol of punishment. For most of us, wormwood doesn't picture a very attractive landscape. 

Perhaps, "bitterness" is not the most popular request in perfumery, but it is still good to have such compositions. Among my favorite fragrances are quite a few that contain wormwood notes: Caron Yatagan, Amouage Memoir Man, Robert Piguet Bandit, Biehl Parfumkunstwerke GS02, Cartier L'Heure Vertueuse III, La Folie a Plusieurs Blow Up, Davidoff Hot Water, Amouage Ohood, IUNX No.03 L'Eau Ivre, Carven Paris Manille, Etro Gomma, CdG Blue Incense, Aramis, Etat Libre d'Orange Eloge du Traitre, Naomi Goodsir Nuit de Bakélite, Viktor&Rolf Sage Spell, Krizia Uomo, Jacques Bogart One Man Show. I'm sure you can easily continue this list.