Artemisinin is a colorless needle-like crystal of sesquiterpene lactone with peroxy groups extracted from the stems and leaves of Artemisia annua, a compound inflorescence plant. Its molecular formula is C 15H22O5, which was discovered by China pharmacist Tu Youyou in 197 1 year.
Artemisinin is the most effective specific antimalarial drug after ethirimide, chloroquine and primaquine, especially for cerebral malaria and chloroquine malaria, which has the characteristics of quick onset and low toxicity. It was once called "the only effective malaria treatment drug in the world" by the World Health Organization.
Extended data
Besides anti-malaria, artemisinin has many other functions:
1, fight tuberculosis
A study by Michigan State University found that artemisinin can help treat tuberculosis and slow down the evolution of drug resistance in tuberculosis. Researchers have found that artemisinin can shut down mycobacterium tuberculosis by interfering with it, so that the bacteria can die in an anoxic environment and achieve the effect of fighting tuberculosis.
2. Inhibit the growth of cancer cells
Xiao Youli, from the Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institute of Life Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, found that the unique structure of artemisinin can inhibit the growth of cancer cells. The researchers synthesized a small molecular probe with artemisinin as the skeleton. It is found that artemisinin can disturb many normal physiological pathways of cancer cells, thus inhibiting the growth and proliferation of cancer cells. ?
3, can treat trauma
Artemisinin drugs can effectively alleviate organ failure caused by severe trauma and can be used to save the lives of seriously injured patients. The researchers used artesunate (which has the same mechanism as artemisinin) to treat experimental rats with massive blood loss. The results show that this drug protects the organs of experimental mice and greatly reduces the probability of organ failure. Researchers believe that artesunate can reduce the body's inflammatory response. ?
4. Artemisinin derivatives can treat lupus erythematosus.
A research team led by Zuo Jianping, a researcher at Shanghai Institute of Pharmacology, China Academy of Sciences, published a study in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism, saying that artemisinin derivatives may be used to treat systemic lupus erythematosus.
Researchers have proved that artemisinin derivatives have good curative effect and novel immune regulation mechanism, which can significantly improve the symptoms and course of lupus erythematosus, reduce the incidence of fatal lupus nephritis, significantly prolong the life cycle of patients, and have positive significance for finding and clarifying the drug treatment targets of systemic lupus erythematosus.
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