Awarded the Nobel Prize, Scientist Youyou Tu was the first to extract the biologically active component – Artemisinin -from one of the most beneficial and widely used Traditional Chinese Medicinal herbs, Ai Ye – Mugwort – Artemisia. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Artemisinin’s ability to treat Malaria as an alternative to standard chloroquine which has had diminishing effectiveness since ’65 due to drug-resistant parasites. This international recognition of someone who’s scientific research on the active properties of traditional Chinese medicinals is a day to be celebrated by all TCM practitioners & healthcare providers alike!
Tu spent her entire career researching traditional Chinese medicine based at the Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Beijing (now the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences) since 1965.
Researcher Tu has always maintained that she drew her inspiration from the medical text of a fourth-century Chinese physician and alchemist named Ge Hong 葛洪 (circa 283-343) whom explained the use of Ai Ye 1,700 years ago in treatment of symptoms similar to malaria, including small pox, typhoid and dysentery.
“There’s something else that marks Tu as extraordinary; she embodies, in both her history and her research, what I call medical bilingualism – the ability not only to read in two different medical languages but to understand their different histories, conceptual differences, and, most importantly for this unexpected news, potential value for therapeutic interventions in the present.”-Hanson
The reaches of this new drug will be helpful to so many thousands/millions affected by malaria. Unfortunately though is it that health and healthcare can’t exist on such a grand stage without politics, as observed by The World Health Organization’s focus on production of the active component of the herb rather than outlining the greatness of the herb, Ai Ye – Artemisia which Artemisinin is extracted from. For posterity sake, Artemesia – Ai Ye can be taken internally/externally as a poultice/salve/liniment or as a burnt incense called “moxa” for treatment of different conditions such as; dysmenorrhea, cramping, abdominal pain, nausea, as an appetite stimulant for those undergoing chemotherapy/radiation, skin problems with marked dampness and itching, or for cold abdominal/lumbar/uterine and now, as observed by the Noble Prize electorate, a suitable treatment for malaria!
Congratulations to Youyou Tu in winning the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine!
Thank you for your work – Columbia River Acupuncture
2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
https://theconversation.com/is-the-2015-nobel-prize-a-turning-point-for-traditional-chinese-medicine-48643