Tu Youyou winning the Nobel Prize: Ethical research on the value and safety of traditional Chinese medicine.

In 2015, the Chinese pharmacologist, Tu Youyou, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of artemisinin. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) was the source of inspiration for Tu's discovery and provides an opportunity for the world to know more about TCM as a source of medical knowledge and practice. In this article, the value of TCM is evaluated from an ethical perspective. The characteristics of 'jian, bian, yan, lian' are explored in the way they promote accessibility and economic efficiency for TCM. The article also examines how the increased use and prevalence of TCM reflects the scientific, cultural, and ethical values of TCM and their increasing attraction in meeting major challenges to medicine and health systems currently and in the future. The article discusses safety issues within TCM, which is a controversial area, and also comments on some shortcomings and challenges which pose difficulties for more widespread and greater uptake of TCM-derived clinical or therapeutic interventions. The article concludes that TCM is generally safe if it is used according to TCM theory and where such applications are cognizant of the strengths and weaknesses of TCM. TCM has important bioethical values which may inform potential measures for meeting challenges facing global health care systems and the article argues that it can have an increasing role in improving human health.

[Retrospection on the history of discovery of artemisinin and its ponderation].

The study of the medical history of the discovery of artemisinin is divided into two stages since its achievement of international awards. Before the award, the studies were focused on historical background, discoverer, time of discovery, discovery process, methodology, key difficulties, and the disputes about artemisinin and its causes. After achieving international awards, the focus of research was obviously different. In addition to more detailed research on the discovery process, more researches were focused on a multiple approach, including the significance, enlightenment, experience and lessons of discovery of artemisinin, scientist community, Tu Youyou's award-winning priority, Tu Youyou's biography, involving the spread, right of discovery and inventory, and geography of science and technology. In the future, scientific methodology, unconventional thoughts, intuitive thoughts, abductive reasoning, special social background at that time and the thought leading to its ponderation, etc. of winning the Nobel Prize should all be paid attention to.

Perspectiva histórica de antimaláricos de origen natural / Historical perspective of antimalarials of natural origin

Hoy, muchas enfermedades son tratadas gracias al descubrimiento de compuestos a partir de las plantas, lo que evidencia que estas juegan un papel significativo en el descubrimiento y desarrollo de nuevos fármacos. Una de las alternativas para el control de la morbi-mortalidad por malaria es la quimioterapia, la cual ha sido posible gracias al descubrimiento de compuestos a partir de las plantas. En la actualidad, cerca de la mitad de los fármacos antimaláricos disponibles son compuestos naturales o están relacionados con ellos. En esta revisión se hace un recuento histórico del origen y desarrollo de los principales antimaláricos como instrumento de hechos arquitectónicos, que mantienen una estrecha relación con los referentes antimaláricos, que sirven de modelos para profundizar en la búsqueda de nuevas sustancias químicas naturales que podrían contribuir al control de una devastadora enfermedad como la malaria, donde se están presentando cepas resistentes de Plasmodium a los principales tratamientos, falla terapéutica, además de un escaso acceso a los medicamentos, entre otros factores; que complican su prevención y tratamiento (AU)

Today, many diseases are treated thanks to the discovery of compounds from plants, which shows that they play a significant role in the discovery and development of new drugs. One of the alternatives for the control of malaria morbidity and mortality is chemotherapy, which has been made possible by the discovery of compounds from plants. At present, about half of the available antimalarials drugs are naturally occurring compounds or are related to them. This review provides a historical account of the origin and development of the main antimalarials as an instrument of architectural facts, which maintains a close relationship with the antimalarials referents, which serve as models to deepen the search for new natural chemical substances that could contribute to the Control of a devastating disease like malaria, where resistant strains of Plasmodium are being presented to the main treatments, therapeutic failure, in addition to poor access to medicines, among other factors; which complicate their prevention and treatment (AU)

A Brief History of Qinghaosu.

The 2015 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology was awarded to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura for their discovery of avermectins, and to Tu You You for her contribution to the discovery of artemisinin. The discovery and development of qinghaosu (artemisinin) as an antimalarial drug is a remarkable and convoluted tale.

El Premio Lasker, la Medicina tradicional china y el descubrimiento de la Artemisina / No disponible

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From bark to weed: the history of artemisinin.

In the 1970's, in China, some brilliant and courageous scientists carried out a research programme, which lead to the discovery of artemisinin derivatives and new quinoleines that are used today, in combination, as first line treatment of malaria.

Diverse biologies and experiential continuities: did the ancient Chinese know that qinghao had anti-malarial properties?

This article treats Chinese medical theories and concepts as cultural constructs that arose as much from practice-oriented concerns as from socio-political negotiations within the medical field. It further explores the interface of the biological and cultural. It is often futile to investigate how Chinese medical descriptions relate to biological processes, because the local biologies that the Chinese physicians recognized in the past and continue to describe in the present, are contested by mainstream medicine, but recent bioscientific research on the anti-malarial properties of the Chinese medical drug qinghao opens up new avenues for the historian. To be sure, no attempt is made to equate ancient nosologies to modern ones, nor to justify the cultural through the biological. In order to avoid pitfalls of simple equations, this article takes the experiential not merely as a subjective but as an inter-subjective reality that mediates the biological and cultural. The findings are striking: once one reads the Chinese medical texts as reporting on the experiential, one of their many possible readings is that they provide concrete descriptions of morbid conditions that also the contemporary mainstream physician recognizes.

Artemisinins from folklore to modern medicine--transforming an herbal extract to life-saving drugs.

The history of the artemisinins from Ge Hong in China during the 4th century, to the re-discovery of the qing hao derivatives in the 1970s, to the explosion of artemisinin derivatives and combinations throughout the world today is a fascinating story. The central and underappreciated role of the United States Army's 'drug company' known as the Division of Experimental Therapeutics at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research is a story worth relating. From being the first group outside China to extract the active component of qing hao, to leading the work on neurotoxicity of the class in animals, to bringing a Good Manufacturing Practices intravenous formulation to the worldwide market is traced.

Reflections on the 'discovery' of the antimalarial qinghao.

Artemisinin, qinghaosu, was extracted from the traditional Chinese medical drug qinghao (the blue-green herb) in the early 1970s. Its 'discovery' can thus be hailed as an achievement of research groups who were paradoxically successful, working as they were at the height of a political mass movement in communist China, known in the West as the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), a period that was marked by chaos, cruelty and enormous suffering, particularly, but by no means only, among the intelligentsia. On the one hand, China's cultural heritage was seen as a hindrance to progress and Mao set out to destroy it, but on the other hand he praised it as a 'treasure house', full of gems that, if adjusted to the demands of contemporary society, could be used 'for serving the people' (wei renmin fuwu). The success of the 'task of combating malaria' (kang nüe ren wu), sometimes known as 'task number five hundred and twenty-three', depended crucially on modern scientists who took seriously knowledge that was recorded in a traditional Chinese medical text, Emergency Prescriptions Kept up one's Sleeve by the famous physician Ge Hong (284-363).

The history of qing hao in the Chinese materia medica.

Artemisinin is currently used for treating drug-resistant malaria. It is found in Artemisia annua and also in A. apiacea and A. lancea. Artemisia annua and A. apiacea were known to the Chinese in antiquity and, since they were easily confused with each other, both provided plant material for the herbal drug qing hao (blue-green hao). This article shows, however, that since at least the eleventh century Chinese scholars recognized the difference between the two species, and advocated the use of A. apiacea, rather than A. annua for 'treating lingering heat in joints and bones' and 'exhaustion due to heat/fevers'. The article furthermore provides a literal translation of the method of preparing qing hao for treating intermittent fever episodes, as advocated by the eminent physician Ge Hong in the fourth century CE. His recommendation was to soak the fresh plant in cold water, wring it out and ingest the expressed juice in its raw state. Both findings may have important practical implications for current traditional usage of the plant as an antimalarial: rather than using the dried leaves of A. annua in warm infusions, it suggests that fresh juice extraction from A. apiacea may improve efficacy.