Counterfeiting, short supply hamper powerful Chinese herbal malaria drug: NewsTarget.com

Doctors around the world have used a Chinese herbal drug -- artemisinin -- to effectively treat malaria since the 1960s, but recent supply shortages have sparked production of dangerous counterfeits, according to World Health Organization (WHO) officials.

Li Guiqiao, a professor at the Tropical Medicine Institute at Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said he first used artemisinin on malaria patients when he was a village doctor in China's Yunnan province in 1974, at the government's request. Within hours, all 18 of his test patients felt better, and all recovered within a few days, Li said.

The leaves of the Artemisia annua -- sweet wormwood shrub -- have been used by Chinese herbalists as malaria medicine for more than 1,500 years, but in the late 1960s, scientists discovered its anti-malarial properties. Worldwide experts today believe artemisinin to be the most effective malaria drug.

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Counterfeiting, short supply hamper powerful Chinese herbal malaria drug

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