Malaria / Artemisin / Wormwood
Resurrecting this old project to get some useful malaria medicine.
[2021-12-23] Attaching a paper about Artemisin in Rusinga Island. See bottom of page.
[2024 Feb] Ordered some fromPossible supplier
https://www.tocris.com/products/artemisinin_2668
Evans if you can figure it out how to make up a safe dose, let me know. Otherwise I will ask around and we will make a page for it with a more understandable explanation of how to prepare a solution, or whatever we need to do…!
Following the link to the suppliers section, it says “Select your country of interest to search for an international distributor. If you do not find your country in the list below then your territory is served direct by Bio-Techne (contact us)” So that’s where to start. Perhaps Evans can become a supplier. Kenya is not on the list.
Other possibilities
[2021-12-08] Found a source on Rusinga Island but she is having trouble with drought. Drought is less of a problem in Badilisha because of the extensive tree cover and other permaculture methods. Also found a pastor in Kisumu who grows it. There are at least 2 new variants that can grow in Kenya, and a friend says he can send some seeds. Maybe we can get some from the Pastor in the meantime, until we have a crop.
[2021-12-02] I found a supplier in the USA of a tincture,
https://www.herb-pharm.com/product/wormwood/
I have emailed them to check that they will be able to post it to Kenya.
Got a reply, don’t ship international but iherb does. There is a link to their live chat (10a.m. to 6p.m) here.
iherb won’t send to Kenya, and I can’t find anyone who will The world is full of bureaucratic idiots. I found one site from Kenya that has something that might be ok but out of stock. It was oil and being sold as cosmetic anyway may not be accurate enough to be used internally.
I’d be inclined to use the natural extracts over a single synthetic chemical when both are proven to have worked.
Previous notes
Old stuff is below for reference. Some links may still work, I will check later.
File index for “malaria folder”, 7-Mar-2002, 6:26 AM
it seems from this stuff below, that there is at least one plant that is at least as effective against malaria as the ‘best’ drugs, if not superior to them in some circumstances. Thus it makes sense for people with little money to look into this and start growing these plants themselves. There are sure to be medical professionals in the places where such people live who will be open minded enough to help people ensure that they try these out safely.
In brief, there are many varieties of wormwood but only Artemisa annua has the anti-malarial properties. And this from the nutrimed website: “Annual wormwood (Artemisia annua) has been used effectively in treating patients infected with the intestinal protozoa G. lamblia and E. histolytica, (7) as well as parasites associated with malaria. Clinical studies demonstrated a 100% cure rate in 485 cases of tertian malaria and a 92.7% cure rate in 105 cases of subtertian cerebral malaria. In another series of 2099 malaria patients infected with p. falciparum or p. vivax, Artemisia produced a cure in every case. It’s active principle, artemisinin inhibits the enzyme cytochrome oxidase which the parasite needs to maintain its various membranes.(8 – for references see the page.)
- An article from Agricultural Research magazine, with big picture of the plant. (Acrobat file, about 200k)
- BBC – Horizon – Script (42935 bytes)
- Distribution of Artemisinin in Artemisia annua – very thorough description of plant with diagrams, and details of artemisinin detection and distribution in the plant.
- Duggal’s Malaria Website – Advanced/New Techniques – this page has a little about artemisinin not on the others, and neem too (worth looking into). The whole site looks useful.
- Malaria, Health Risks – Travelers vs. Natives (Tropical Diseases) “In this page, my intention is to educate people about the dangers of Malaria, but also on the responsibilities of all travelers in the third world to do their part to both stay safe and not perpetrate resistant strains amongst the local people.” – This page has lots to follow up on.
- OptiMAL assay is a sensitive, simple to use dipstick assay that permits the detection of all major species of human malaria; and can distinguish between P. falciparum and P. vivax. In addition, the OptiMAL assay can be used to monitor patient therapy. http://www.malariatest.com./ – may be useful for monitoring a trial.
- Nutrimed Labs – lots of info on the parasites themselves
- Artemisia annua Plants for a future database search, includes more info on where it will grow. Sounds promising for WP.
- Sweet Wormwood – good brief overview of the plant.
- Artemisia annua (sweet wormwood) and artemisinin – brief intro with references to the active ingredient, plus a bit about wormwood. References.
- artemisinin.com.cn/ Sells a drug called artemos in capsules. I have enquired about price and if it is synthesized or derived from the plant (reply is below). This page is useful in that it has dosages, precautions etc. Chinese site. “no where else can Artemisia Annua. be found with such high content of Artemisinin as in the Wulingshan valley.”
Reply Re Artemos:
Subject: Re: enquiry Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2002 11:45:19 +0800 From: artemisn <artemisn@online.cq.cn> Thanks for your email. ARTEMOS (Artemether 40mg) Softgel Capsules CIF USD3.00/pack Artemisinin is extracted from plant Artemisea. Artemether is semi synthesised from Artemisinin into Artemether.B Zhimin Yin- ---- Original Message ----- To: <artemisn@public.cta.cq.cn> Sent: Sunday, March 10, 2002 4:02 AM Subject: enquiry > Hi, > > Having a bit of trouble with the website, need plug-ins I do not have. > > Can you tell me > > 1. Prices for ARTEMOS (Artemether 40mg) Softgel Capsules and any other > available forms. We would be interested in bulk prices too, after an > initial trial. > > 2. is it derived from the plant or synthesised? > > Thank you