Moxa treatment
Moxibustion (Chinese: 灸; pinyin: jiǔ) is an oriental medicine therapy utilizing moxa, or mugwort herb. It plays an important role in the traditional medical systems of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet, and Mongolia. Suppliers usually age the mugwort and grind it up to a fluff; practitioners burn the fluff or process it further into a stick that resembles a (non-smokable) cigar. They can use it indirectly, with acupuncture needles, or sometimes burn it on a patient's skin.
Mugwort
| Mugwort | ||||||||||||||
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| Artemisia vulgaris L. |
Artemisia vulgaris (Mugwort or Common Wormwood) is one of several species in the genus Artemisia with names containing mugwort. It is also occasionally known as Felon Herb, Chrysanthemum Weed, Wild Wormwood, or St. John's Plant (not to be confused with St John's wort). It is called Mogusa or Yomogi in Japan. It is native to temperate Europe, Asia and northern Africa, but is also present in North America where it is an invasive weed. It is a very common plant growing on nitrogenous soils, like weedy and uncultivated areas, such as waste places and roadsides.
Mugwort is a different species from Wormwood, but of the same genus, and containing some of the same chemical components. The Mugwort is closely allied to the Common Wormwood, but may be readily distinguished by the leaves being white on the under-surfaces only and by the leaf segments being pointed, not blunt. It lacks some of the essential oils of the Wormwood.
It is a tall herbaceous perennial plant growing 1-2 m (rarely 2.5 m) tall, with a woody root. The leaves are 5-20 cm long, dark green, pinnate, with dense white tomentose hairs on the underside. The erect stem often has a red-purplish tinge. The rather small flowers (5 mm long) are radially symmetrical with many yellow or dark red petals. The narrow and numerous capitula (flower heads) spread out in racemose panicles. It flowers from July to September.
A number of species of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) feed on the leaves and flowers; see List of Lepidoptera that feed on Artemisia for details.
Etymology
Mugwort is often said to derive from the word 'mug' because it was used in flavoring drinks. However, this may be a folk etymology. Other sources say Mugwort is derived from the old Germanic muggiwurti, meaning "fly or knat plant", which refers to its use since ancient times to repel insects, especially moths.[1]
Mugwort is called chornobyl in Ukrainian, and has given its name to the abandoned city of Chornobyl (Chernobyl in Russian).
Related species
There are other species in the genus Artemisia called mugwort:
- Artemisia douglasiana – Douglas' Mugwort
- Artemisia glacialis – Alpine Mugwort
- Artemisia norvegica – Norwegian Mugwort
- Artemisia stelleriana – Hoary Mugwort
- Artemisia verlotiorum – Chinese Mugwort
Chinese mugwort (A. verlotiorum) is often confused with common mugwort (A. vulgaris). It has oblong reddish to brown capitula, its stems are green and the leaves broader, lighter colored and more dense on the stem. The plant has a stronger and more pleasant smell than that of the common mugwort (whose aroma is really light). It flowers very late in the summer, but reproduces mainly by stolons, thus forming thick groups. Chinese mugwort shares the same habitat as common mugwort and both are very common.
Uses
Mugwort contains thujone, which is toxic. Pregnant women, in particular, should avoid consuming large amounts of mugwort. The species is little used now due to toxicity concerns, but has a number of recorded historic uses in food, herbal medicine, and as a smoking herb.
Food
The leaves and buds, best picked shortly before the plant flowers in July to September, were used as a bitter flavoring agent to season fat meat and fish. In Germany, known as Beifuß, it is mainly used to season goose, especially the roast goose traditionally eaten for Christmas.
Mugwort is also used in Korea and Japan to give festive rice cakes a greenish color. After the cherry trees bloom in Korea, hordes of bonneted grandmothers collect wild mugwort. It is a common seasoning in Korean soups and pancakes. Known as a blood cleanser, it is believed to have different medicinal properties depending on the region it is collected.
In the Middle Ages Mugwort was used as part of a herbal mixture called gruit, used in the flavoring of beer before the widespread introduction of hops.
Herbal Medicine
The plant contains ethereal oils (such as cineole, or wormwood oil, and thujone), flavonoids, triterpenes, and coumarin derivatives. Chewing some leaves will kill the fatigue and stimulate the nervous system. It was also used as an anthelminthic, so it is sometimes confused with wormwood (Artemisia absinthium).
Mugwort is used in the practice of traditional Chinese medicine in a pulverized and aged form called moxa. The British RCT yielded results that indicate that moxibustion of mugwort was indeed effective at increasing the cephalic positioning of fetuses who were in a breech position before the intervention. Since it also causes uterine contractions, it has been used to cause abortion. It also plays a role in Asian traditional medicine as a method of correcting breech presentation. This method is termed moxibustion. A study of 260 Chinese women at 33 weeks of pregnancy demonstrated cephalic version within two weeks in 75% of fetuses carried by patients who were treated with moxibustion, as opposed to 48% in the control group.[2] It has also been shown that acupuncture plus moxibustion slows fetal heart rates while increasing fetal movement.[3] Two recent studies of Italian patients produced conflicting results. In the first, involving 226 patients, there was cephalic presentation at delivery in 54% of women treated between 33 and 35 weeks with acupuncture and moxibustion, vs. 37% in the control group.[4] The second was terminated prematurely because of numerous treatment interruptions.[5]
Folklore & Witchcraft
In the Middle Ages, mugwort was used as a magical protective herb. Mugwort was used to repel insects, especially moths, from gardens. Mugwort has also been used from ancient times as a remedy against fatigue and to protect travelers against evil spirits and wild animals. Roman soldiers put mugwort in their sandals to protect their feet against fatigue.
Much used in witchcraft, mugwort is said to be useful in inducing lucid dreaming and astral travel. Consumption of the plant, or a tincture thereof, prior to sleeping is said to increase the intensity of dreams, the level of control, and to aid in the recall of dreams upon waking. One common method of ingestion is to smoke the plant. Colloquially, this practice is known as "Having a tasp."
Terminology
The word "moxa" comes from Japanese mogusa (艾) (the u is not very strongly enunciated). Yomogi (蓬) also serves as a synonym for moxa in Japan. Chinese uses the same character as mogusa, but pronounced differently: ài, also called àiróng (艾絨)(meaning "velvet of ài").
The Chinese character for moxa forms one half of the two making up the Chinese word that often gets translated as "acupuncture" zhēnjiǔ (鍼灸).
Theory and practice
Practitioners use moxa to warm regions and acupuncture points with the intention of stimulating circulation through the points and inducing a smoother flow of blood and qi. Research, for example at Mugwort (Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine by Clare Hanrahan) has shown that mugwort acts as an emmenagogue, meaning that it stimulates blood-flow in the pelvic area and uterus. It is claimed that moxibustion militates against cold and dampness in the body and can serve to turn breech babies [6]
Medical historians believe that moxibustion pre-dated acupuncture, and needling came to supplement moxa after the 2nd century B.C.E. Different schools of acupuncture use moxa in varying degrees. For example a 5-element acupuncturist will use moxa directly on the skin, whilst a TCM-style practitioner will use rolls of moxa and hold them over the point treated. It can also be burnt atop a fine slice of ginger root to prevent scarring.[citation needed]
Practitioners consider moxibustion to be especially effective in the treatment of chronic problems, "deficient conditions" (weakness), and gerontology. Bian Que (fl. circa 500 B.C.E.), one of the most famous semi-legendary doctors of Chinese antiquity and the first specialist in moxibustion, discussed the benefits of moxa over acupuncture in his classic work. He asserted that moxa could add new energy to the body and could treat both excess and deficient conditions. On the other hand, he advised against the use of acupuncture in an already deficient (weak) patient, on the grounds that needle manipulation would leak too much energy.
A huge classical work, Gao Huang Shu (膏肓俞), specialises solely in treatment indications for moxa on a single point (穴).
Note that Taoists use scarring moxibustion along with Chinese medical astrology for longevity.
Practitioners may use acupuncture needles made of various materials in combination with moxa, depending on the direction of qi flow they wish to stimulate.
Parallel uses of mugwort
In North and South America, indigenous peoples regard mugwort as a sacred plant of divination and spiritual healing, as well as a panacea. Mugwort amongst other herbs were often bound into smudge sticks. Europeans placed sprigs of mugwort under pillows to provoke dreams; and the herb had associations with the practice of magic in Anglo-Saxon times.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- ↑ Lust, J. (2005) "The Herb Book" p.604
- ↑ Cardini, F., and W. X. Huang. JAMA 280(18): 1580-1584, November 1998
- ↑ Neri, I., et al. Journal of the Society for Gynecological Investigation 9(3): 158-162, May-June 2002
- ↑ Neri, I., et al. Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine 15(4): 247-252
- ↑ Cardini, F., et al. BJOG 112(6): 743-747, June 2005
- ↑ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HKP/is_1_29/ai_73711259 American Journal of Chinese Medicine, Winter, 2001, Yoichi Kanakura, et al.
See also
- Traditional Chinese medicine
- Traditional Japanese medicine (Kampo)
- Traditional Korean medicine
- Traditional Tibetan medicine
- Traditional Mongolian medicine
External links
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