Discovery of Artemisinin (Qinghaosu).docVIP

Molecules 2009, 14, 5362-5366; doi:10.3390/moleculeOPEN ACCESS molecules ISSN 1420-3049 /journal/molecules Editorial Discovery of Artemisinin (Qinghaosu) Fulong Liao Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100700, China; E-Mail: liaofulong100@ Received: 9 December 2009 / Accepted: 18 December 2009 / Published: 21 December 2009 Artemisinin (Qinghaosu), a new antimalarial drug, was discovered in China in the early 1970s. The discovery of artemisinin is attributed to You-You Tu, at that time a middle-aged phytochemist working in the Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The following paragraph provides a brief summary of her discovery. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Tu was the head of an antimalarial research group, which comprised both phytochemical and pharmacological researchers. She led her group of young scholars in the extraction and isolation of constituents with possible antimalarial activities from Chinese herbs. During the first stage of this research, her group investigated more than 2,000 Chinese herb preparations and identified 640 recipes that might have some antimalarial activities. More than 380 extracts, obtained from some 200 Chinese herbs, and including extracts from Artemisia annua L., were tested against a rodent malaria model. However, progress was not smooth and no significant results were obtained at first. The turning point came when an Artemisia extract showed a promising degree of inhibition against parasite growth, consistent with activity which had been reported for this species in “A Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies” by Ge Hong (Jin Dynasty, 284-346 AD). Tu brilliantly modified the extraction technique to perform it at low temperature, rather than using heating, as was conventional. Much better antimalarial activity was o