Alias: Ai, Ai grass, Bingtai, Ai artemisia, medical grass, moxa grass, herbs, yellow grass, family Ai, sweet Ai, grass pong, Ai pong, wolfsbane artemisia seeds, fragrant Ai, wild lotus head, A and Ai, Chen Ai, gray grass, big Ai leaves, Du Ai leaves, shriveled artemisia

Contraindications: caution for those who have a deficiency of yin and blood-heat.

Basic introduction of mugwort leaves

The dried leaves of mugwort, family Asteraceae. Ai is a perennial herb, 45-120 centimeters high. The stem is erect, round, hard, woody at the base, covered with gray-white soft hairs, and branched from the middle up. It grows on roadsides, grasslands, and wildernesses. Also cultivated. Picked in spring and summer when the flowers are not in bloom and the leaves are in full bloom, and dried in the sun or in the shade.　

Effects and functions of mugwort

Bitter and pungent, warm. Into the spleen, liver, kidney meridian. It can regulate qi and blood, expel cold and dampness; warm the menstruation, stop bleeding, and stabilize the fetus. Treatment of cold pain in the heart and abdomen, diarrhea and cramps, chronic dysentery, epistaxis, bleeding, menstrual disorders, leakage, subluxation, fetal restlessness, carbuncle ulcers, scabies.

The purchase of mugwort leaves

Dry leaf blade, more crumpled and broken, with a short stalk. The leaf blade is slightly pinnately divided, the edge of the lobe has irregular coarse serration. Above gray-green, with soft hairs, below the dense gray-white tomentum. The texture is soft. Aromatic, slightly bitter and pungent flavor. To the bottom gray-white, downy, strong aroma is preferred.

Storage of Mugwort

After drying, place it in a cool, dry and ventilated place.

Consumption of mugwort leaves

Internally: decoction, 1 ~ 3 money; into the pill, bulk or pounded juice.

External use: pounded velvet for cones or made of moxa stick moxibustion, pounded compresses, decoction of water fumigation or frying hot warm iron.