Simulated digestion of dried leaves of Artemisia annua consumed as a treatment (pACT) for malaria.

ABSTRACT:

Ethnopharmacological relevance

Artemisinin (AN) is produced by Artemisia annua, a medicinal herb long used as a tea infusion in traditional Chinese medicine to treat fever; it is also the key ingredient in current artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) effective in treating malaria. Recently we showed that dried leaves from the whole plant Artemisia annua that produces artemisinin and contains artemisinin-synergistic flavonoids seem to be more effective and less costly than ACT oral malaria therapy; however little is known about how digestion affects release of artemisinin and flavonoids from dried leaves.

Material and methods

In the current study we used a simulated digestion system to determine how artemisinin and flavonoids are released prior to absorption into th

SUBMITTER: Weathers PJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3924430 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature