Rarely in botanical history has one herb been at the opposite poles of the sacred-profane dichotomy more substantially than artemisia. Sacred to Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, nature, and the Moon, the various species of artemisia have been well known to the Chinese for thousands of years for their pharmacological properties. In his manuscript A Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies, the Chinese physician and alchemist Ge Hong (284–346 AD) describes in detail the use of Artemisia annua (sweet wormwood or, in Chinese, Qinghao) as a remedy against malaria fevers.
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