Artemisia annua: Dynamite from mugwort

Today is about Artemisia annua, annual wormwood, or Chinese wormwood. Artemisia annua should not be confused with Artemisia vulgaris, which is primarily known here as a culinary herb.

In the original version of this article, I took a brief detour at this point into Artemisia vulgaris, absinthe, and Van Gogh. But that is not what today’s article is about. Today is about the annual “annua” wormwood.

Artemisia annua became widely known after Tu Youyou was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discoveries concerning a new malaria therapy. The starting point for her research was Artemisia annua, from which artemisinin was ultimately obtained. Artemisinin and active substances developed from it continue to play an important role in malaria therapy today. In addition, some of these pharmaceutical substances have also been investigated in other fields of research—including cancer research.

The taz article at the time, “Dynamite from Wormwood,” focused on this research and quoted, among others, the scientist Thomas Efferth. Possible mechanisms of action of artemisinin derivatives such as artesunate on tumor cells were investigated. What fascinated me most about this at the time was that an entirely new field of modern pharmacological research had emerged from an ancient medicinal plant.

For me, the plant Artemisia annua still illustrates a fundamental question: What happens when we consider complex plants only through individual isolated substances?

I do not want to say anything about the motives of pharmaceutical companies. But I do have something to say about the thinking underlying the isolation of substances.

What would happen if, instead, we began to think more holistically? It would mean recognizing that an individual chemical substance within a plant is embedded in a larger context. A context we can respect and investigate.

Everything is connected. There is only ONE life. Is that so difficult to understand? What would follow from this ONE perspective if it were ever adopted one day?

A note for context: This text comes from our earlier work with Artemisia. Where research is mentioned here, it partly concerns artemisinin or pharmaceutical derivatives such as artesunate—not evidence of efficacy for our tincture or for Artemisia annua as a dietary supplement. Today, we try to describe these distinctions more carefully, without retrospectively smoothing over the history.

You can find more about Artemisia annua, its history, and the research surrounding the plant in our Adaptopedia on Artemisia annua.