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May 14, 2019

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Scientists improve extraction of medicine to treat malaria

Source: Xinhua | 00:05 UTC+8 May 14, 2019 | Print Edition

Chinese researchers have developed a new technology to produce artemisinin, the top choice of medicine for the treatment of malaria, on a large scale.

Sweet wormwood was used in ancient Chinese therapy to treat various illnesses, including fevers typical of malaria.

Nearly five decades ago, Chinese scientists identified its active ingredient, artemisinin.

In 2005, the World Health Organization recommended Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies as the most effective malaria treatment.

Global demand for artemisinin then increased, but the quality and supply have not been stable.

According to researchers from the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, due to its complex structure, artemisinin is currently difficult and not economically feasible to chemically synthesize.

The traditional industrial method to produce artemisinin is to treat sweet wormwood leaves with organic solvents such as petroleum ether.

The extraction process is long, energy consumption is high and the productivity is low.

In the study, the IPE researchers proposed to enhance the contact between the solvent and the leaves by reflux to speed up artemisinin extraction.

As a result the extraction time was reduced from seven hours to four and a half hours.

After treating sweet wormwood leaves with solvents, they optimized the evaporation process with a thin film evaporator, an apparatus that provides a continuous evaporation process, especially for heat-sensitive products, to retrieve the solvents.

The time taken to produce the artemisinin concentrate is reduced by 87.5 percent.

The new technology makes the recovery of the solvents reach 99.9 percent, energy consumption per ton of artemisinin drops by 43 percent and the product purity is higher than 99 percent, said Wang Hui from the IPE.

Zhang Suojiang, director of IPE, added: 鈥淭his technology solves the main shortcomings in the traditional artemisinin production process and could also provide ideas for other natural products production.鈥

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