Artemisia annua Garden

Artemisia annua Garden

Artemisia annua is an annual herbaceous plant known for its anti-malarial, antibacterial, and antipyretic properties. The discovery of its anti-malarial effects led to a major breakthrough in the treatment of malaria. In 2011, the Lasker Foundation awarded the Clinical Medical Research Award to Tu Youyou, a researcher at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the discovery of artemisinin and its application in the treatment of malaria. In fact, the anti-malarial use of Artemisia annua was not a recent discovery. As early as over a thousand years ago, Ge Hong described its anti-malarial function in his medical text “Zhou Hou Bei Ji Fang • Treatments for Various Types of Malaria,” and also recorded specific methods for preparing the herb for medicinal use. Tu Youyou drew inspiration from these records and successfully extracted an Artemisia compound that proved 100% effective. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015. Today, a monument has been erected at the site where Ge Hong once climbed the mountain to gather herbs, commemorating his significant contributions to medicine and showcasing the long-standing and profound heritage of traditional Chinese medicine.