For many centuries, Chinese herbalists used the sweet wormwood plant (Artemisia annua) as a kind of all-round wonder drug. A tea made from its leaves was used to treat malaria as well as fevers, colds, diarrhea and bleeding. A poultice of leaves was placed on boils, abscesses and nose bleeds.

Western researchers began to focus on the plant’s specific anti-malarial properties in the early 1970s when they isolated and tested the active ingredient artemisinin. Subsequent trials have shown it to be a very effective malaria drug, even against multi-drug resistant strains of the disease.

But while access to the expensive artemisinin group of drugs is still problematical, especially for people living in the remote rural areas of Tanzania where malaria strikes most frequently, the sweet wormwood plant will grow virtually anywhere and is common throughout Africa.

NIMR scientist Vitus Nyigo leading a project to validate the safety and effectiveness of sweet wormwood as a cheaper, standardized malaria herbal remedy for use in remote rural areas. He is conducting clinical trials with malaria patients and investigating a concoction of sweet wormwood and two other plants he believes may help to synergize the parasite-killing properties of artemisis annua.

Expected Outcomes

• Establishment of safety and efficacy of herbal combination in a large research population.
• A cheaper, efficacious and socially acceptable malaria remedy which can be easily prepared and used in rural communities whereby 80% of malaria patients resides.
• Establish the role of herbal product in reducing reservoirs of malaria parasites and their transmitive stage in the human population.

Impact

• Additional tool for the improvement of malaria case management