| ≥1 piece |
the herb Artemisia annua L., locally known in Southeast Asia as "qing hao," which is a member of the "Asteraccae" family. (Common names include "sweet wormwood" or "annual wormwood".)
Chemical characteristics:
ARTEMISININ/Arteannuin
Structure: C15H22O5
Molecular weight: 282.3
Chemical name:
3R,5aS,6R,8aS,9R,12S,12aR)-Octahydro-3,6,9-trimethyl-3, 12-epoxy-12H-pyrano[4.3-j]-1,2-benzodioxepin-10(3H)-one; CAS Reg. N?63968-64-9
Chemical characteristics:
Lipophylic substance : Soluble in ethanol and hexane.
Description : white crystalline powder
Melting range : 150 C?- 153 C?o:p>
Pharmacological properties: artemisinin acts as a blood schizontocide and therefore kills malaria parasites.
Artemisinin is the product extracted from the dry leaves of Artemsisia Annua (sweet wormwood). This plant has to be grown each year stating from seeds. The plant is peculiar in its behaviour. Nicely grown-up plants may be devoid of Artemisinin. In order that this product is synthetised by the plant special agricultural and climatological conditions must be respected. The plant can grow in many places but it may not contain Artemisinin.
For example: Visitors of the ancient palaces in the Forbidden City in Beijing can find nice artemisia annua plants pushing left and right as weeds, but these plants do not contain artemisinin.
Best results have been obtained in plantations (North Vietnam, mainly in the vicinity of Hanoi) or in wild plants (the plants collected from the steep hills around You Yang in the Chongqing province in China where the best plant grows at altitudes above 1000 m).?The highest yields per ton dry leaves comes from cultures in Tanzania.
How it kill malaria?
Today this wormwood extract is used in Asia and Africa to successfully treat malaria. Its mechanism is well-known: artemisinin reacts with a high concentration of iron (ferrous compounds) - which is exactly what is found in the malaria parasite. When artemisinin comes into contact with high iron concentrations, a chemical reaction is produced which creates free radicals that attack cell membranes, breaking them apart and killing the single-cell parasite.
Artemisinin has been shown to work through oxygen and carbon based free radical mechanisms. Its structure includes an endoperoxide bridge. Peroxides generate free radicals in a Fenton type reaction when exposed to unbound ferrous iron. Malaria, which grows in the erythrocytes, has the opportunity to accumulate much excess iron which can spill into the unbound form. Electron microscopy has confirmed destruction of plasmodium membranes with morphology typical of free radical mechanisms
There are a number of properties shared by cancer cells, which favor the selective toxicity of artemisinin against cancer cell lines, and against cancer in vivo. In addition to higher rates of iron flux via transferren receptors than normal cells, cancers are particularly sensitive to oxygen radicals
Can it treat breast cancer?
One of the unique characteristics of breast cancer cells in humans is that they also metabolize and retain high ferrous concentrations. So the question arose: Might artemisinin do for breast cancer cells what it does for to the malaria parasite? For breast cancer, Ingredients: artesunate 50 mg., Artemether 40 mg., Artemisinin 50 mg., (Pharmaceutical grade). Directions: Take one capsule per daily or as directed by your physician.
Artemisinin is a powerful oxidant
The effectiveness of artemisinin is reduced by catalase, dithiothreitol and alpha tocopherol.
Distribution of Artemisinin in Artemisia annua*
Jorge F.S. Ferreira and Jules Janick