Southernwood (Artemisia abrotanum L.)

Leaves.

Asteraceae (sunflower family, also known as aster family), subfamily Asteroidae.

There are two main cultivated strains of southernwood, both of which have a strong fragrance, which many people find disagreeable even in mediocre amounts. The traditional type vaguely reminds of lemon, and the more recently bred type (camphor southernwood) has an even more intense and dominant smell. A third type with particularly strong odour is sometimes marketed as coca-cola herb. The differences in fragrance between these three types are as strong as their names would imply.

Southerwood shoot

Flowering southernwood (camphor-scented form)

Both main types are, despite their signi­ficant bitter­ness, well suited for culi­nary usage, al­though a pre­ference for the lemon type would seem natural. See zedoary on the topic of bitter spices and lemon myrtle about lemon scented spices.

Southern­wood contains up to 1.4% essential oil. There are chemotypes whose oil is dominated by either thujone (up to 70%) or 1,8-cineol (up to 60%). Minor components are fenchene, sabinene, α-caryo­phyllene and β-caryo­phyllene. Further­more, oil of southern­wood is charac­terized by the hetero­cyclic sesqi­terpenoids davanol, davanone and hydroxy­davanone. See also mugwort on the toxicity of thujone.

Among the non-volatile constituents, an alkaloid abrotin and coumarins (iso­fraxidin, umbelli­feron), flavonoids glycosides (rutin) and free flavonol ethers (various isomeric quercetin dimethyl ethers) are reported. Al­though southern­wood contains bitter sesqui­terpene lactones of absinthin type, it is still less bitter than its close relative, wormwood.

Thujone is also found in southern­wood’s close relatives mugwort and particularly worm­wood, and in unrelated species like thuja or sage. It is rather poisonous and generally held res­pon­sible for the toxi­city of alco­holics con­taining worm­wood extracts. See also mugwort on absinthe.

Probably Asia Minor or Europe (the plant today grows wild in the Western Mediterranean).

Flowering branches of camphor-scented (left) and lemon-scented (right) southernwood.

Southernwood young shoot (plant found in Nepal)

The Latin name of the plant, abrotonum, is not related to Latin aper boar (as might be suggested by the German name Eber­raute, which could be mis­interpreted as boar-rue, but is in fact a dis­tortion of the Latin name), but was bor­rowed from Greek habrotonon [ἁβρότονον]; the latter’s origin is not known to me.

English southern­wood is a con­traction of southern worm­wood; indeed, southern­wood can be seen as a Southern (Medi­terranean) variant of worm­wood, which is grown in West and Central Europe only since the Middle Ages (see also lovage). The British name old man also was given in contrast to worm­wood, which is known as old woman in some parts of Britain.

The Estonian name sidrun­puju con­tains sidrun lemon and puju mug­wort; thus, the plant is per­ceived a lemon-scented variety of mugwort. For a similar example of a rather controversial fragrance associated with lemon in a North European name, see epazote.
French garde-robe Guard of robes refers to the plant’s power to repel moths and other insects; yet lavender is more common for this purpose.

The botanical genus name Artemisia refers to the Greek goddess of hunting, Artemis [Ἄρτεμις]. The classical Greek name artemisia [ἀρτεμισία] is recorded for a plant sacred to the goddess; its precise meaning might have been wormwood (A. absinthium, A. ponticum) or another closely related species.

Ilkas und Ullis Kochecke: Eberraute (rezkonv.de via archive.org) Nature One Health: Wormwoods Nature One Health: Southernwood Pflanzen des Capitulare de Villis: Eberraute (biozac.de)