The wormwood, Artemisia absinthium, has long been used as a bitter agent and flavour, particularly in alcoholic beverages. The ancient Egyptians, Sumerians, Greeks and Romans aall utilised it. However, it is known for it's liability to induce severe neurological disturbances when consumed in excess or habitually. The syndrome of absinthium involves restlessness, vomiting, vertigo, tremors and convulsions. for that reason oil of absinthe in foods beverages or medicinal remedies has been forbidden in some countries.
Pliny writes that wines were flavoured with absinthe to make them keep longer. Celsus notes that oil of wormwseed was taken with honey as a carminative and diuretic. Liquors utilising artemisia, such as absinthe beer, in which the herb was added instead of hops to confer bitterness, were introduced about the end of the 17th century on a wide scale in Europe. In 1797, Henri Louis Pernod produced his absinthe beverage on a commercial scale, and in France it was regarded as a useful stimulant for jaded minds. The title vermouth used fro some of the absinthe drinks was derived from the German word for wormwood. Parisian society took to absinthe in a big way, and it brought artists and poets into some disreputre. Nevertheless, when in 1876 Edgar Degas exhibited his painting known as "Au cafe" or alternatively "L'Absinthe", showing a young girl and a worldly man, drowsy and unkempt at a table in a post-absinthe state, French society expressed outrage. Yet it came to be realised that constituents of absinthe, such as thujone, anisol and fenchelol could not be taken lightly as causes of illness.
It is a matter of great regret, I feel that, as described in the New England Journal of Medicine for september 18, 1997, essential oil of wormwood is being offered on the internet for self-medication without any adequate control. In a case described by three doctors from George Washington medical centre in Washington, a man aged 31 was found in an agitated, incoherent and disorientated state. His mental condition improved after haloperidol treatment, and he described having discovered instructions for making an absinthe liqueur available from a site on the World Wide Web. He made an electronic purchase of oil of absinthe from a commercial provider of oils intended for aromatherapy. He drank some 10ml of the oil and several hours later became listless and disorientated as to person, time and place. He was later found to be hypernatraemic, hypokalaemic, with alkalosis, with a markedly raised serum creatine kinase concentration. He was treated with injections of sodium chloride and bicarbonate but then developed congestive heart failure and required diuretic treatment and restriction of sodium and alkali. The oil he had consumed proved to be undiluted oil of wormseed.
