by Lorraine Wilcox

It has been two weeks since I picked mugwort and hung it up to dry (see my August 19th, 2010 blog). I picked three kinds of mugwort: I went into a canyon in Malibu to pick Artemisia douglasiana (California mugwort). I also went to the Learning Garden in Venice California and got one stalk each of Artemisia argyi (a Chinese mugwort, the standard species) and Artemisia vulgaris (which grows all over the world and is an alternate species for making mugwort floss). After two weeks of hanging up to dry, the leaves are ready for making floss.

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In Ben Cao Gang Mu, Li Shizhen described the process of making moxa floss: “Pick the clean leaves and winnow them to remove the dust and scraps. Put them inside a stone mortar and grind them into floss with a wooden pestle. Remove the residue with a sieve. Take the white part and grind it again. It meets the standard when it is soft and mashed like silk floss. At the time of use, stone-bake it until it is dry so that the fire of moxibustion will be potent.”

Let me walk you through the process step by step.

1. Strip the leaves off the stems. At this time, remove the thick central veins, if easy to do.

I started with about 2 grams of each of the three kinds of leaves. This will not make a large quantity of floss, but it is enough for my experiment: making floss with the three kinds of mugwort to compare their qualities.

2. Grab a fistful of leaves and put them in a rough mortar. I use a molcajete, which is a stone mortar from Mexico.

3. Grind the leaves with the pestle.

The result doesn’t look much like floss after the first grinding.

4. Once the leaves are all crumpled up into a mass, put them in a sieve. Rub the mass of broken leaves against the side of the sieve using a little pressure. Powder will sift out through the bottom. This can be thrown away or composted. You want the part that stays inside the sieve. Pick out any sticks or stems you see.

5. Grind it again. Repeat grinding and sifting, until it is approximately half the original weight or even less. The more you repeat the process, the finer the quality of the floss. It is amazing how soft and fluffy the leaf matter can become!

I started with A. argyi, since it is the standard species. A. argyi had very few stems to remove. The powder that was sifted out was light bright green.

Next I worked on A. vulgaris. It had more twigs to remove, but the twigs held together and were easy to pick out. The powder was a darker green, since the leaves were also darker.

Finally A. douglasiana. Unfortunately, its twigs break into small pieces so they are harder to pick out. Its powder was about the same color as A argyi.

All three species made a nice fluffy floss. All three flosses were very green but the floss from A. vulgaris was less yellow than the other two. A. argyi was easiest to work with, since it had fewer stems to pick out. This may be one reason it is the standard species.

At this point, the green floss still has a lot of plant oils in it. This makes the floss burn more ‘fiercely’ according to the old books, so it needs to be aged before it is usable. In Ben Cao Gang Mu, Li Shizhen said, “Moxibustion fire from fresh mugwort damages a person’s flesh and vessels.” As it ages, the floss turns more golden and loses its green color. The smell also changes. When green, floss smells quite grassy and fragrant. As it ages, it loses this smell.

The floss on the left was made today. The floss on the right has aged for two years. Both are from A. douglasiana

You must age the floss, not the leaves. Floss from aged leaves will still be green and ‘fierce.’

More refined floss (more grinding and sifting) that has been aged will make less smoke and have a milder odor. However, low quality floss (less grinding and sifting) will not miraculously become high quality with aging. Aging will help dirty coarse floss some, but there are limits to what can be done.

Aging the floss in sunlight is recommended. I leave it out in bowls in a sunny room for a while. Eventually I put the floss in plastic bags, but even then I leave it in a sunny room without sealing the bags. This way the plant oils can evaporate and the color will change.

The old books tell us we should age the floss for three years before using it. The oldest floss I have made is two years old, so I still haven’t really tried it. In another year, I can let you know how my home-made California mugwort floss works. (Maybe I’ll get impatient and try it sooner.)

Now I have new floss from three kinds of mugwort. In three years, once it has aged, I let you know if these three types I made today have different clinical properties. Mencius said, “Seven year old disease needs three year old mugwort.” He meant one needs to be patient when dealing with enduring problems, so we will have to wait patiently, too.