Margaret Grieve, in her A Modern Herbal (first published in 1931), described the taste as "sweetish and acrid",[4] but contact with the plant or consuming the beverage made from it is thought to be a cause dermatitis.

[4] The Ukrainian name for mugwort, чорнобиль, chornóbyl' (or more commonly полин звичайний polýn zvycháynyy, 'common artemisia') transliterates as "black stalk".

[11] In the Middle Ages, mugwort was called Cingulum Sancti Johannis, as it was believed that the 1st century preacher John the Baptist wore a girdle made from the plant.

According to Grieve, mugwort was believed to protect travellers from exhaustion, heatstroke, and wild animals; it was worn on St. John's Eve to gain security from evil spirits.

[4] Mugwort has been used as one of the traditional flavouring and bittering agents of gruit ales, a type of unhopped, fermented grain beverage.

[citation needed] In China, the crunchy stalks of young shoots of A. vulgaris are a seasonal vegetable often used in stir fries.

[15] Historically, A. vulgaris was referred to as the "mother of herbs" during the Middle Ages, and has been widely used in the traditional Chinese, European, and Hindu medicine.

It possesses a wide range of supposed pharmacological uses, including anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, antispasmolytic, antinociceptive, antibacterial, antihypertensive, antihyperlipidemic, and antifungal properties.

The phytochemicals belong to classes including flavonoids, essential oils, phenolic acids, coumarins, sterols, carotenoids, vitamins, and sesquiterpene lactones, among many others.