Artemisinin: the "revolutionary ingredient" in Artemisia annua

Die Artemisia annua, auch als einjähriger Beifuß bekannt, ist eine Pflanze aus der Familie der Korbblütler. Ursprünglich stammt sie aus dem asiatischen Raum, wo die Menschen sie seit über 2.000 Jahren kultivieren . Hier ist sie unter dem Namen “Quinghao” bekannt und wird mit zahlreichen positiven Eigenschaften in Verbindung gebracht. Kaum verwunderlich, denn neben dem wertvollen Artemisinin besitzt die Artemisia annua eine hohe Vielfalt großartiger Pflanzenstoffe , die sich vor allem in ihren feinen, gezackten Blättern verstecken.

As the annual mugwort is a very robust plant that spreads quickly, it has now also conquered other areas of our globe - including numerous countries in Europe. Here, its wild forms (A-2) are often found in the wild or in cultivation. Our own cultivar Artemisia annua anamed (A-3 for short) is also cultivated exclusively.

As the name "annua" suggests, Artemisia annua is an annual plant. Its botanical name comes from the Greek goddess Artemis, the highly respected goddess of hunting, the moon and the forest.

In 2015, Chinese researcher Tu Youyou was awarded the Nobel Prize for the rediscovery of artemisinin, an ingredient extracted and isolated from Artemisia annua.

In fact, she was the first person to bring a Nobel Prize for Science to China.

In 1968, she succeeded in rediscovering the plant, and during the Vietnam War in 1971, she identified the artemisinin in it as part of the secret "Project 523". Numerous ancient Chinese writings were analyzed and various plants examined. As the research team discovered mentions of annual mugwort in several texts, it quickly became the focus of their research. For the time being, however, the researchers were unable to find an extraction process that did not destroy the valuable artemisinin.

Finally, Tu Youyou discovered a recipe in a text by the Chinese alchemist and inventor Ge Hong (341 BC) that was to change everything.

Using these instructions, the Project 523 team carried out a low-temperature extraction. Through further intensive research, they finally managed to isolate the pure artemisinin crystals from the annual mugwort.

For the time being, however, the publications remained anonymous for two reasons. Firstly, scientists were not well regarded by the communists during this time and were even publicly punished. Secondly, publications from China were not taken very seriously during this time.

Semi-synthetic artemisinin is now even being produced and is used for various purposes. However, even the most expensive laboratory in the world has not yet been able to produce this ingredient independently! In the meantime, there are now numerous studies looking into the potential of this ingredient.

Artemisinin is a secondary plant substance, more precisely a sesquiterpene. It is found in the oil glands of the leaves and flowers of annual mugwort, from which it is extracted using hexane extraction. However, the process is very harmful to the environment and expensive due to the gasoline released, which is why the price of artemisinin is correspondingly high.

The artemisinin content of common Artemisia annua wild plants is 0.05 - 0.1%. Our Artemisia annua anamed with a content of up to 1.4 % is an exception. is an exception. This means that the A-3 variety has a consistently up to 20 times higher artemisinin content, offers more content at the same price.

Artemisinin has numerous properties and there are many studies worldwide looking at other areas of application. The most important properties include

At this point we would like to point out that we expressly market Artemisia annua leaf cuttings and leaf powder as a raw material - this corresponds to the current legal situation.

As we have already mentioned, our Artemisia annua anamed (A-3) has a significantly higher artemisinin content than all wild forms.

How is this possible? A-3 is a unique subspecies of annual mugwort that has been researched and cultivated by our partner association anamed with various scientists from three continents has researched and cultivated it. three continents. It was developed in order to be able to offer everyone a uniform, consistent Artemisia annua product with a reliable artemisinin content. At the same time, our special breeding is a completely pure, natural plant formbased exclusively on traditional plant breeding without any genetic modification.

As artemisinin shows promising properties, there were naturally some scientific authoritiesthat have looked into its potential properties. Some researchers tried to find efficient methods to isolate the ingredient from the plant - others looked for new processes to produce partially synthesized artemisinin. Here are a few examples of well-known institutions working on artemisinin:

• Max Planck Institute: Researchers at the Max Planck Institute dedicated themselves to the development of an efficient synthesis method for artemisinin as well as research into the entire plant extract of Artemisia annua.
• Harvard T.H. Chan School: A research group at the Harvard T.H. Chan School investigated various properties and uses of artemisinin.
  
• University of Cape Town: Researchers at the University of Cape Town have specialized in synthesizing and testing new artemisinin derivatives.

Now that the numerous properties of artemisinin have been researched in more detail, various companies are turning their attention to profiting from its commercialization. They are trying to isolate the active ingredient and sell it at a high price, using questionable methods such as synthesis using genetically modified yeasts. They hope to be able to produce large quantities of artemisinin independently of the plant.

However, we at teemana are convinced that Artemisia annua is not a "silver ball preparation", i.e. not a piece of silver surrounded by dirt; not the molecule artemisinin surrounded by impurities so that a "purification" would have to be carried out. A purification is a poorification, a deliberate impoverishment of the product.

In total, annual mugwort contains over 600 different valuable ingredients, all of which are soluble in different ways. It is simply not necessary to isolate individual substances and sell them at a high price.

For this reason, we continue to offer you only the full plant.

Artemisinin is undoubtedly a promising plant substance that is gaining increasing recognition - this is also underlined by the fact that the Chinese researcher Youyou Tu was awarded the Nobel Prize for its rediscovery.

As we can only provide you with a fraction of the information available, you can find further information and studies on this specific ingredient on the Internet or in the specialist literature.