Articles
Valorization of antimalarial Artemisia in the South: evolution into standardized phytomedicines and/or source of future drugs
Article number
1462_16
Pages
109 – 112
Language
English
Abstract
The eradication of malaria remains a major public health challenge in the context of increasing parasite resistance and lack of novel drugs.
Despite the clinical usefulness of existing antimalarials, their limited availability, cost, counterfeiting and potential toxicity have led to the growing popularity of self-medication with infusions of Artemisia annua and A. afra as antimalarials.
Faced with the spread of these informal uses and the violent controversies they arose, it is urgent to provide irrefutable scientific data validating or invalidating these uses and allowing their possible economic and therapeutic valorization.
Existing data on the biological activity of these Artemisia spp. are strongly contradictory, likely due to the great variability in their chemical composition.
We propose the first systematic study correlating the metabolomic analysis of a high number of Artemisia samples representative of global diversity with their biological activities on target parasite stages, aiming at delivering results admissible and usable both by the scientific and medical community and by public health authorities at the global level.
Despite the clinical usefulness of existing antimalarials, their limited availability, cost, counterfeiting and potential toxicity have led to the growing popularity of self-medication with infusions of Artemisia annua and A. afra as antimalarials.
Faced with the spread of these informal uses and the violent controversies they arose, it is urgent to provide irrefutable scientific data validating or invalidating these uses and allowing their possible economic and therapeutic valorization.
Existing data on the biological activity of these Artemisia spp. are strongly contradictory, likely due to the great variability in their chemical composition.
We propose the first systematic study correlating the metabolomic analysis of a high number of Artemisia samples representative of global diversity with their biological activities on target parasite stages, aiming at delivering results admissible and usable both by the scientific and medical community and by public health authorities at the global level.
Publication
Authors
R. Duval, G. Marti, S. Houzé, J.F. Franetich, V. Soulard, D. Mazier
Keywords
malaria, Plasmodium, Artemisia annua, Artemisia afra, systematic study, bioeconomy
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