Artemisia annua
Part Used: Dried leaf & flower
Artemisia annua, also known as Sweet Wormwood, Sweet Annie, or Chinese wormwood, is a common type of wormwood that grows throughout the world. It has fern-like leaves, bright yellow flowers, and a camphor-like scent. It averages about 2 m tall and has a single stem, alternating branches, and alternating leaves which range 2.5-5cm in length. Artemisinin or Qinghaosu, is the active constituent of the herb Artemisia annua. Good quality Artemisia annua contains 0.3-0.5% artemisinin. For over 2000 years, the Chinese have safely used a tea of Artemisia annua to fight fevers and malaria. It produces a compound named artemisinin (qinghaosu), which kills both Plasmodium falciparum (the malarial agent) and cancer cells in a similar manner.
Artemisia annua has Antipyretic, Antibacterial, Antifungal, and Aantimalarial properties. It can be used for heat stroke symptoms, a wide variety of inflammatory conditions, including all kinds of fevers and for treating and preventing malaria. It can be used both topically and internally for bacterial and fungal infections. It is one of a few anti-inflammatory herbs that can be used with symptoms of wasting and yin deficiency. The method of action of the active compound is that it reacts with iron, producing harmful free radicals which damage biological macromolecules including the cell membrane. Malaria is caused by the Apicomplexan, Plasmodium falciparum, which largely resides in red blood cells where there is plenty of iron and cancer cells tend to have higher iron concentrations than normal cells associated with their rapid growth rate. Recent news has mentioned that Kenya starts growing hugely Artemisia annua for malaria. The plant has also been shown to have anti-cancer properties. It is said to have the ability to be selectively toxic to breast cancer cells and some form of prostate cancer, there have been exciting preclinical results against leukemia, and other cancer cells.
References:
Agricultural Research Service. http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/Publications.htm?seq_no_115=168984
Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_annua
E-Drug. http://www.essentialdrugs.org/edrug/archive/200406/msg00017.php
