Other Common Names: Annual Wormwood, Ch'Ou Hao, Huang Hua
Hao, Kuso-Ninzin, Qing-guo, Qing Hao, Sweet Sagewort, Sweet Wormwood,
Ts'Ao Hao, Wormwood, Artemisia annua
Range: S. E. Europe to W. Asia. E. North America
Habitat: A naturalized weed of waste places, roadsides,
fallow fields and neglected gardens in eastern N. America. Plants are
longer lived, more hardy and more aromatic when they are grown in a
poor dry soil.
Qing Ho, better known in the West as sweet wormwood, is a
traditional Chinese herbal medicine. An aromatic anti-bacterial plant,
recent research has shown that it destroys malarial parasites, lowers
fevers and checks bleeding. It is often used in the Tropics as an
affordable and effective anti-malarial.
The leaves are antiperiodic, antiseptic, digestive, febrifuge. An
infusion of the leaves is used internally to treat fevers, colds,
diarrhea etc. Externally, the leaves are poulticed onto nose bleeds,
boils and abscesses. The leaves are harvested in the summer, before the
plant comes into flower, and are dried for later use.
The plant contains artemisinin, this substance has proved to be a
dramatically effective anti-malarial. Artemisinin is the antimalarial
substance isolated in China in 1972 from a shrub (Artemisia annua) used
in traditional Chinese medicine from which qinghaosu is derived.
Clinical trials have shown it to be 90% effective and more successful
than standard drugs. In a trial of 2000 patients, all were cured of the
disease.
Artemisinin and its derivatives are a group of fast acting and
life-saving drugs, produced mainly in China and Viet Nam. Their
widespread and irrational use, especially underdosing and poor quality
formulations, accelerates parasite resistance. These drugs should be
reserved for treating multidrug-resistant malaria. However, unregulated
commercial vendors sell these drugs in Cambodia and neighbouring
countries.
Artemisinin and its derivatives have an essential role to play in
the treatment of multidrug-resistant falciparum malaria. The remarkable
properties of these drugs are particularly valuable in the treatment of
severe and complicated malaria caused by multidrug-resistant P.
falciparum. These drugs have been widely used in China and Viet Nam and
have been recently registered in many other countries outside the
Western Pacific Region. Malaria mortality in Viet Nam dropped by 92%
when these drugs were used on a nationwide basis from 1992 to 1996.
From the early 1990s, economic recovery made it possible to increase
allocations to malaria control. Collaboration between industry and
researchers led to the local production of artemisinin and related
drugs for treatment of severe and multidrug-resistant malaria. The
artemisinin drugs (used for centuries in traditional Chinese and
Vietnamese medicine) had been rediscovered by Chinese scientists in the
1970s. In Viet Nam, the introduction of these rapidly acting
antimalarial drugs in the general health services has helped to reduce
the number of severe cases and malaria mortality.
The seeds are used in the treatment of flatulence, indigestion and night sweats.
The plant is used in China as a medium for growing Aspergillus which is used in brewing wine.
- Pittler
MH, Ernst E: Artemether for severe malaria: a meta-analysis of
randomized clinical trials. Clinical Infectious Diseases 1999; 28(3):
597-601. - World Health Organization. Fifty years of WHO in the Western Pacific Region. Chapter 22. Malaria
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