Botanical Expedition! - Botanical Research Institute of Texas

iridos volume 18 no 2
10
An Ancient Chinese Herbal Medicine
Helps the Global Fight Against Malaria
Every year, an estimated 300-500 million people are infected with malaria,
a mosquito-borne parasitic disease (see
diagram) that causes between 1.5 and 2.7
million deaths per year in tropical and
subtropical areas. New cases of the deadly
disease are increasing, particularly in sub-
Saharan Africa. African children under the
age of five and pregnant African women
have the greatest risk of dying from malaria.
With the advent of global warming, some
scientists postulate that malaria may spread
north to temperate climates, including the
Southern United States.
tRAditionAl solutions fRoM thE
PAst
Traditional healers have skillfully used
herbal medicines to treat malaria symptoms
for millennia, and cinchona trees (in the
genus Cinchona) have provided traditional
medicines to native Peruvians for 3,000
years. In the 1820s, the antimalarial drug
quinine was first extracted from the red
bark of cinchona trees. No one knows for
sure which species of Cinchona was first
used by Jesuit monks to treat malaria in the
17th century, but commercial production
of quinine has centered on Cinchona
ledgeriana. For the past 300 years, malaria
has been variously treated with cinchona
bark, quinine, and its synthetic derivatives.
Tonic water, an essential ingredient in
that refreshing summer gin and tonic, was
originally used to treat and prevent malaria
in British India. Today, many boutique tonic
waters still contain spicy tasting quinine.
ModERnizing solutions
During World War II, the Japanese
takeover of the East Indies cut off nearly
all the world’s supply of cinchona bark and
quinine, seriously endangering the war
effort. Many World War II battles took
place in tropical areas where the control
and prevention of malaria among Allied
troops was essential. For a time, in the
Pacific theater, more American solders
were reportedly dying from malaria than
from gunshot wounds. In the meantime,
scientists worked to develop synthetic
antimalarial compounds.
After World War II, the use of synthetic
quinine derivatives, notably chloroquinine,
in the treatment and prevention of malaria
spread all over the world. Chloroquinine
was relatively cheap to produce, highly
effective in malaria treatment and
prevention, and less toxic than other
treatments.
However, the parasitic organisms that
cause malaria, Plasmodium falciparum
and P. vivax, mutate rapidly. In the
face of widespread use and misuse of
chloroquinine-based drugs, mutation has
led to drug resistant strains and the recent
increase in malaria.
by
marissa
oppel, ms
Acts givE hoPE
Today, hope lies in a compound derived
from an herb used in Traditional Chinese
Medicine, artemisinin, a chemical
compound derived from Artemisia annua
(also known as sweet wormwood, sweet
Annie, and quinghao). Sweet wormwood, an
established non-native in the United States,
is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to
treat fevers and other ailments. The drug,
artemisinin, and its derivatives are effective
against drug-resistant malaria. Further,
drugs that combine artemisinin derivatives
with longer-acting antimalarial drugs, are
known as ACTs, and are now the first line