Middle Medicine

Ancient methods lead to more effective malaria medicines

Ancient Chinese preparation methods, that involved either soaking and wringing, or pounding and squeezing the fresh herb Qing Hao (Artemesiae Annuaeare Herba) are more effective than the current method of preparing herbal teas from the dried herb for producing artemisinin-rich extracts. While both extracts exhibited potent in vitro activities against the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, only the pounded juice contained sufficient artemisinin to suppress parasitaemia in vivo. (Ancient Chinese methods are remarkably effective for the preparation of artemisinin-rich extracts of Qing Hao with potent antimalarial activity. Molecules. 2010 Feb 4;15(2):804-12).