Mugwort: Rice Cakes, Moxa, and Medicine

Spring mugwort in soup, dried mugwort burned as moxa, and aiye in the Donguibogam are three faces of one family of plants.

Mugwort (艾葉) is a plant every Korean knows as food, moxa and medicine. The Donguibogam records it as warming the womb, stopping bleeding and settling the fetus.

Spring mugwort and the medicine aiye

The mugwort in food is the young plant picked in early spring. Aiye, the medicine, is the dried leaf of the fully grown plant. All belong to the genus Artemisia, but their uses diverge.

What the text records

The Tangaek-pyeon records it as warm, bitter and non-toxic. It treats many long-standing illnesses, women's uterine flooding, settles the fetus, and stops abdominal pain and red-white dysentery.

The material of moxibustion

Dried mugwort, rubbed into moxa wool, is what is burned in moxibustion (灸) to warm the acupoints. It is a rare herb that is both an internal medicine and the core of a signature external therapy.

Processing and caution

For stopping bleeding, a roasted form called aitan (艾炭) was used. Being warm and drying, it is traditionally approached with care in heat patterns, used only under professional supervision in pregnancy, and not overused because of its essential oils. A herb in the same gynecological context is Angelica Gigas. This article is educational.