This is Starwest's nitrogen-flushed double wall silverfoil pack.

Also called Wormwood.

Used as an infusion, decoction, extract, tincture and smoke.

The 1997 Commission E on Phytotherapy and Herbal Substances of the German Federal Institute for Drugs recommends absinthe for 'Loss of appetite, dyspepsia, biliary dyskinesia. Daily dosage: 2 - 3 g of herb as water infusion. Mode of Administration: Cut herb for infusions and decoctions, herb powder, also extracts and tinctures as liquid or solid forms of medication for oral administration.'

Yes, absinthe is an inebriating pipeful - its psychoactive thujones seem to bind to the same receptor as THC. Several species of Artemisia are also smoked for visionary effect by some Indian tribes. Edgar Allen Poe loved it, and lookit what he did.

A user writes: 'The effect was extremely pleasant, although I would not list absinthe as a psychedelic. It definitely belongs in terms of subjective effects to the solvent/nitrous oxide category, although pharmacologically very different. The following day I felt very lethargic, but it is hard to say if it was due to the absinthe since we stayed up pretty late that night. My conclusion: I give it two thumbs up, but would not drink it more than occasionally since it is reported as neurotoxic.'

Although the oil destroys various types of worms, long-term use, due to the mildly toxic thujones, is not recommended. Ordinary wormwood teas or tinctures, however, contain very little thujone, and are considered safe for short-term use. Wormwood is safe enough to be recommended by the German Commission E. Also present in the plant are strong bitter agents known as absinthin and anabsinthin. These stimulate digestive function, including gall bladder function.

Grieve's classic 'A Modern Herbal': 'The chief constituent is a volatile oil, of which the herb yields in distillation from 0.5 to 1.0 per cent. It is usually dark green, or sometimes blue in colour, and has a strong odour and bitter, acrid taste. The oil contains thujone (absinthol or tenacetone), thujyl alcohol (both free and combined with acetic, isovalerianic, succine and malic acids), cadinene, phellandrene and pinene. The herb also contains the bitter glucoside absinthin, absinthic acid, together with tannin, resin, starch, nitrate of potash and other salts.'

Medicinal Action and Uses: Tonic, stomachic, febrifuge, anthelmintic.

'A nervine tonic, particularly helpful against the falling sickness and for flatulence. It is a good remedy for enfeebled digestion and debility.'

'Preparations: Fluid extract, ½ to 1 drachm. Wormwood Tea, made from 1 oz. of the herb, infused for 10 to 12 minutes in 1 pint of boiling water, and taken in wineglassful doses, will relieve melancholia and help to dispel the yellow hue of jaundice from the skin, as well as being a good stomachic, and with the addition of fixed alkaline salt, produced from the burnt plant, is a powerful diuretic in some dropsical cases. The ashes yield a purer alkaline salt than most other vegetables, except Beanstalks and Broom.'

'A light infusion of the tops of the plant, used fresh, is excellent for all disorders of the stomach, creating an appetite, promoting digestion and preventing sickness after meals, but it is said to produce the contrary effect if made too strong.'

'The flowers, dried and powdered, are most effectual as a vermifuge, and used to be considered excellent in agues. The essential oil of the herb is used as a worm-expeller, the spirituous extract being preferable to that distilled in water. The leaves give out nearly the whole of their smell and taste both to spirit and water, but the cold water infusions are the least offensive.'

'The intensely bitter, tonic and stimulant qualities have caused Wormwood not only to be an ingredient in medicinal preparations, but also to be used in various liqueurs, of which absinthe is the chief, the basis of absinthe being absinthol, extracted from Wormwood. Wormwood, as employed in making this liqueur, bears also the name 'Wermuth' - preserver of the mind - from its medicinal virtues as a nervine and mental restorative. If not taken habitually, it soothes spinal irritability and gives tone to persons of a highly nervous temperament. Suitable allowances of the diluted liqueur will promote salutary perspiration and may be given as a vermifuge.'

'The drug, absinthium, is rarely employed, but it might be of value in nervous diseases such as neurasthenia, as it stimulates the cerebral hemispheres, and is a direct stimulant of the cortex cerebri. When taken to excess it produces giddiness and attacks of epileptiform convulsions.'

'Absinthium occurs in the British Pharmacopoeia in the form of extract, infusion and tincture, and is directed to be extracted also from A. maritima, the Sea Wormwood, which possesses the same virtues in a less degree, and is often more used as a stomachic than the Common Wormwood.'

King's 1898 Dispensatory: 'Physiologically both oil of wormwood and extract of absinth act upon man as nerve depressants. Less than drachm doses produced in rabbits and dogs tremors, spasmodic muscular action of a clonic character, intoxication, and loss of sensibility. Larger doses (from 1 to 2 drachms) produced violent epileptoid seizures, in some instances resulting fatally.'

'Small doses administered to man act as a gentle stimulant, larger doses produce headache, while still larger doses induce cerebral disturbances and clonic hysteroidal convulsions (Lancereaux). Victims of absinthism are subject to disturbed rest, with disagreeable dreams, awakening in the morning with sickness and vomiting. A chronic intoxication ensues that is more fearful in its effects than that resulting from the abuse of alcoholics. A conspicuous feature is the tendency to epileptoid attacks. Both physical and mental power is seriously impaired and the sexual system weakened to such an extent that virile power is lost in the male while a premature menopause is a common result in the female. It is also said to produce a peculiar hyperaesthesia, most marked in the integument of the hypogastrium.'

'Absinthium possesses decided medicinal qualities, acting with considerable force upon the cerebrum and the sympathetic, nervous system. It has been employed with success for the expulsion of the intestinal parasites—ascaris vermicularis and lumbricoides. Previous to the introduction of cinchona it was largely employed in malarial intermittents, and was at one time a popular remedy for jaundice.'

'In small doses it is a stimulant tonic, improves the appetite, and is useful in atonic states of the gastro-intestinal tract, as a tonic dyspepsia, especially when due to alcoholic excesses, in flatulent colic, and in obstinate diarrhoea.'

'Large doses are apt to irritate the stomach and increase the action of the heart and arteries. It has been employed with good results in amenorrhoea and leucorrhoea when due to debility. It is principally used, however, as a warm fomentation for sprains, bruises and local inflammations. For this purpose it may be steeped in water, or better in vinegar and water, and applied as hot as can be borne. It has also been advised as an external application in chronic affections of the abdominal viscera, either in the form of tincture, infusion, or poultice. Its tonic properties are marked. Combined with a fixed alkaline salt, it is said to prove powerfully diuretic.'

'The oil is narcotic. Of the infusion (i to Oj), 1 to 2 fluid ounces; of the oil, from 1 to 5 drops; the powder, 10 to 20 grains.'