Wormwood Oil & Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is an illness characterized by fatigue, fever, headache, joint and muscle pain, swollen lymph nodes and chills, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. Lyme disease is caused by the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria and spread by the bite of several species of tick. Many chronic Lyme disease patients turn to alternative therapies when the standard course of antibiotics fails to resolve their symptoms. Wormwood oil, an anti-parasitic herbal preparation, has proven useful in some infectious diseases but should be used with extreme caution.

History

• Wormwood's name stems from ancient Egypt and Greece, where people used plants of the wormwood family (artemisia) to rid themselves of parasites. Wormwood was also popular as an antiseptic and fever remedy. An Asian form of wormwood (qinghao) is still widely used in traditional Chinese medicine. Wormwood oil gained popularity in the 1800s as the magic ingredient in absinthe, a sweet liquor infamous for its purported abilities to enhance creativity and intense clarity of thought.

Bioactivity

• In his "Handbook of Medicinal Herbs," James Duke lists antibacterial activity among the traits of many species of wormwood, although this claim is based on traditional uses of the herb rather than formal clinical trials. Fabien Juteau and colleagues noted in a 2003 study published in the journal Planta Medica that essential oils derived from two European types of wormwood had antimicrobial effects on yeast in the laboratory. One of the principle chemical components of wormwood is thujone, a neurotoxin that some absinthe devotees argue is responsible for the pleasant secondary effects of the drink. Thujone is also present in the herbs sage, cedar, mugwort and tansy.

Derivative Drugs

• Asian wormwood is the source of the anti-malaria drug Coartem. Coartem is made from artemisinin, an extract of wormwood. It is capable of curing more than 96 percent of malaria cases in areas where drug-resistant strains of the disease have emerged, according to Scientific American. Coartem was approved in the United States for use as an anti-malarial in 2009. As of 2010, testimonials about the use of artemisinin on Lyme disease were available, but no clinical trials had been done on the effectiveness of Coartem against Lyme disease.

Facts

• The anti-parasitic and anti-malarial action of wormwood and its extracts is no guarantee that it will be effective against the bacteria that causes chronic Lyme disease. There have been very few studies examining the antibacterial properties of wormwood. A 2003 study in the International Journal of Food Microbiology found that wormwood did have an inhibitory effect on some bacteria.

Warning

• Essential Oils warns that wormwood is a convulsant and neurotoxin. Proponants of absinthe claim that thujone, the key neurotoxic component of wormwood, is safe in small doses. However, according to Absinthe Fever, neat wormwood oil contains 40 percent thujone.The National Toxicology Program reports that one individual who consumed 10 ml of wormwood essential oil became agitated and disoriented and developed renal failure. Wormwood oil should only be used with extreme caution.