The line of drug treatments developed against malaria, beginning with quinine, an alkaloid extracted from the bark of the South American cinchona tree and used by Jesuit missionaries in Peru from the 1630s onward, centuries before the parasite it acted against was identified. Quinine remained the only effective antimalarial for nearly three hundred years; the alkaloid itself was isolated in pure form by the French chemists Pierre Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Bienaime Caventou in 1820. Synthetic successors, chloroquine foremost among them, largely replaced quinine through the twentieth century until spreading parasite resistance eroded their effectiveness. Artemisinin, extracted from the sweet wormwood plant Artemisia annua by the Chinese chemist Tu Youyou in 1972 during the secret Project 523 program, restored a highly effective option and, combined with a partner drug as artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), is now the World Health Organization-recommended first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria worldwide.
Facts
Origin YearMarks the earliest well-documented use of cinchona bark against fever by Jesuit missionaries in Peru; the active alkaloid, quinine, was not isolated in pure form until 1820 (Pelletier and Caventou), and artemisinin, today's frontline compound, was isolated separately in 1972 by Tu Youyou's team. FAQs
Why is artemisinin given together with a partner drug instead of alone?
Alone it lets parasites return and risks resistance, so the World Health Organization calls for combinations.
Artemisinin used alone tends to leave parasites behind, so they return, and other drugs are needed to clear the body of all parasites and prevent a recurrence. There is also a resistance concern. The World Health Organization has discouraged artemisinin monotherapy because malaria parasites have shown signs of developing resistance to it, and in 2006 it called for an immediate halt to single-drug artemisinin preparations in favor of combinations of artemisinin with another malaria drug. That is why artemisinin-based combination therapy is the standard form today.
Connections
Associated With
Tu Youyou discovered artemisinin, the basis of modern artemisinin combination therapies, by systematically reviewing traditional Chinese medicine texts.
Source A Nobel for Natural Product Discoveries
Long-Form Articles
Treats
Source A History of MedicineLois N. Magner
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Antimalarial therapy
WikipediaLead section, treatment-status statementQuote, Lead section, treatment-status statement
Artemisinin, extracted from the sweet wormwood plant Artemisia annua by the Chinese chemist Tu Youyou in 1972 during the secret Project 523 program, restored a highly effective option and, combined with a partner drug as artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), is now the World Health Organization-recommended first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria worldwide.
2. A History of Medicine
Lois N. Magner, CRC Press
A Nobel for Natural Product Discoveries
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of HealthAssociated With: Traditional Chinese MedicineView the Source Essays About This Entity (1 essay)
A 1,700 Year Old Recipe Won Traditional Chinese Medicine Its Only Nobel Prize
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