Is mugwort harmful to pregnant women?

The plant mugwort can be used as a traditional Chinese medicine. It can treat many diseases. It can also be used for fumigation or bathing to improve your physical condition. It also has a certain hemostatic effect, so it is also regarded as a very common gynecological medicine. Pregnant women can also use it without causing any harm to their bodies.

Mugwort is closely related to the lives of the Chinese people. During the Dragon Boat Festival, people always place mugwort at home to "ward off evil spirits". The dried plant body is soaked in water and fumigated to achieve the purpose of disinfection and itching relief. Postpartum women often use mugwort water for bathing or fumigation.

In addition to "white wormwood" and "white mugwort", the Compendium of Materia Medica also records "Qi mugwort" (produced in Qizhou, now Xinzhou Town, Qichun County, Hubei Province), which can be used as medicine. This is a cultivated variety of mugwort cv. qiai, which is different from the original species (wild species) in that the cultivated plant is tall, 150-250 cm tall, with a strong aroma; the leaves are thick and papery, with dense and thick hairs, the middle leaves are pinnately lobed, and the upper leaves are usually undivided, elliptical or oblong, up to 7-8 cm long and 1.5 cm wide, and the leaves are often cotton-like when rubbed; it is used as medicine, and is warm, bitter, pungent, and slightly sweet. [1]

The whole plant is used as medicine, which has the effects of warming the meridians, removing dampness, dispelling cold, stopping bleeding, anti-inflammatory, relieving asthma, relieving cough, stabilizing pregnancy and anti-allergic. Medical books of all dynasties record it as an "essential medicine for stopping bleeding" and it is also one of the commonly used medicines in gynecology. It is especially good for treating gynecological diseases of deficiency and cold, and chronic bronchitis and asthma in the elderly. Boiled water for bathing can prevent and treat maternal and infant infections during the postpartum period, or it can be made into medicinal pillows and medicated vests to prevent and treat chronic bronchitis or asthma in the elderly and stomach pain due to deficiency and cold. Mugwort leaves are dried and crushed to get "moptysis wool", which can be made into moxa sticks for moxibustion, and can also be used as the raw material for "ink paste". In addition, the whole plant can be used as an insecticide or fumigation smoke for room disinfection and insecticide. The young shoots and seedlings are used as vegetables. [1]

Mugwort is bitter, pungent and warm in nature, and enters the spleen, liver and kidneys. "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: Mugwort leaves are used as medicine, which are warm in nature, bitter in taste, non-toxic, purely yang in nature, and can pass through the twelve meridians. It has the effects of restoring yang, regulating qi and blood, expelling dampness and cold, stopping bleeding and stabilizing the fetus, and is also commonly used in acupuncture. Therefore, it is also called "medicinal herb". Most of the "herbal baths" that are popular in Taiwan use mugwort. Regarding the properties of mugwort, "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: "Mugwort can cure all diseases." "Compendium of Materia Medica Congxin" says: "Mugwort is bitter and pungent, warm when raw, hot when cooked, and has a purely yang nature. It can restore the lost yang, connect the twelve meridians, run through the three yin meridians, regulate qi and blood, expel cold and dampness, and warm the uterus... Using it for moxibustion can penetrate all meridians and cure all diseases." This shows that using mugwort as a moxibustion material has the effects of dredging blood vessels, eliminating yin and cold, reducing swelling and dispersing nodules, and restoring yang and rescuing from adverse conditions.

Modern pharmacology has discovered that mugwort contains a lot of volatile oil, including 1.8-cineole (accounting for more than 50%), and others include α-thujone, sesquiterpene alcohols and their esters. The air-dried leaves contain 10.13% minerals, 2.59% fat, 25.85% protein, and vitamins A, B1, B2, C, etc. When using moxa leaves for moxibustion, generally speaking, the older the leaves, the better. Hence, there is a saying that “a seven-year illness requires three years of treatment with moxa” (Mencius).