New method of producing anti-malarial drugs

The new method increases the efficacy of artemisinin acid extract, the main active ingredient in anti-malarial drugs by 4 times.

Max Planck Institute (Germany) has found a new way to extract artemisinin acid to increase the production efficiency of antimalarial drugs by 4 times normal from sweet wormwood (also known as yellow flower tall stick).

Prof. Peter Seeberger, Free University in Berlin next to one
Molecular model at his laboratory in Berlin, Germany.

Antimalarial drugs Artemisinin is commonly used today extracted from sweet wormwood, a plant that mainly lives in China and Vietnam. But in the past, conventional extraction methods from these plant components for artemisinin acid to produce drugs often wasted about 10 times the amount of artemisinin acid in plant residues.

To save raw materials, scientists have also used ultraviolet light to activate artemisinin acid conversion. But this way is too expensive and inefficient.

To date, German chemists have created a pump for all the necessary components from the tall yellow flower stick, through a small tube, surrounded by an ultraviolet light bulb in a continuous process. about 4.5 minutes will produce artemisinin.

This technique can convert about 40% of artemisinin acid in plant residues, allowing the ability to produce drugs four times higher than before.

Scientists intend to put this device into official operation within 6 months to 1 year. Each is worth USD 132,000. Using this device will reduce the cost and increase the effectiveness of producing anti-malarial drugs.

It is known that each year in Chau, about 655,000 people die from malaria, mostly children under 5 years old. But the cost of treatment is too high compared to the poor, it takes $ 10 for each dose of artemisinin.