Artemisinin: discovery from the Chinese herbal garden

Abstract

This year's Lasker DeBakey Clinical Research Award goes to Youyou Tu for the discovery of artemisinin and its use in the treatment of malaria--a medical advance that has saved millions of lives across the globe, especially in the developing world.

Figure 1. The Antimalarial Drug Artemisinin (Qinghaosu)

Since the discovery of artemisinin from Artemisia annua L., a plant used in traditional Chinese medicine, by Youyou Tu and colleagues, many derivatives have been synthesized, including dihydroartemisinin, which is more active than artemisinin. To protect this important antimalarial drug, combination therapy with another antimalarial drug is the only treatment used today. The future synthesis of new antimalarial drugs may be possible, originating from the endoperoxide bridge that is required for artemisinin’s antimalarial activity (Charman et al., 2011).