Zhong Yurong learned from the literature that silica gel column is more effective in separating neutral compounds, so he and his assistant Cui, based on the pretreatment of Ni Muyun column, used silica gel column chromatography and gradient elution of petroleum ether-ethyl ether (later changed to petroleum ether-ethyl acetate) to separate ether neutral extract according to the method provided in the literature.
1972165438+1October 8th, separated with silica gel column produced by Shanghai Reagent Factory, and eluted with petroleum ether and ethyl acetate-petroleum ether (in different proportions) for several times. Firstly, a small number of needle-like crystals, numbered as "needle crystal I" (number 1 or needle1), are obtained; Subsequently, the number of eluted needle crystals is "needle crystal II" (No.2 or needle 2); Later, another square crystal was obtained, numbered "Crystal III" (No.3 or square crystal).
In the same year, at the beginning of 65438+February, the malaria test in mice proved that "Needle Crystal II" was the only effective monomer with antimalarial effect. Since then, Beijing Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine has changed the effective component of antimalarial drug "Needle Crystal No.2" to "Artemisinin No.2", sometimes also called artemisinin, when reporting to the National 523 Office. Later, Beijing Institute of Chinese Medicine called "artemisinin II" artemisinin.
Extended data
Tu Youyou has been engaged in the research of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine for many years, and his outstanding contribution is to create new antimalarial drugs artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin. A colorless crystal with the molecular formula of C 15H22O5 was successfully extracted from 1972 and named artemisinin.
20 1 1 In September, artemisinin, a drug used to treat malaria, saved millions of lives around the world, especially in developing countries, and won the Lasker Prize and the "Outstanding Achievement Award in Life Science" of GlaxoSmithKline China R&D Center.
20 15 10 won the nobel prize in physiology or medicine for discovering artemisinin which can effectively reduce the mortality of malaria patients. She became the first China person to win the Nobel Prize in Science.
Baidu encyclopedia-artemisinin
Baidu Encyclopedia-Tu Youyou