Artemisia medicinal uses

Chinese pharmaceutical chemist (born )

In this Chinese name, the family name is Tu (屠).

Tu Youyou (Chinese: 屠呦呦; pinyin: Tú Yōuyōu; born 30 December ) is a Nobel Prize-winning Chinese malariologist and pharmaceutical chemist.

She discovered artemisinin (also known as qīnghāosù, 青蒿素) and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria, a breakthrough in twentieth-century tropical medicine, saving millions of lives in South China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America.

For her work, Tu received the Lasker Award in clinical medicine and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with William C.

Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura. Tu is the first Chinese Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine and the first female citizen of the People's Republic of China to receive a Nobel Prize in any category. She is also the first Chinese person to receive the Lasker Award. Tu was born, educated and carried out her research exclusively in China.^[3]

Tu was bestowed the Medal of the Republic, the highest honorary medal of the People's Republic of China, in September ^[4]

Early life

Tu was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China, on 30 December ^[5]

My [first] name, Youyou, was given by my father, who adapted it from the sentence 呦呦鹿鳴, 食野之蒿^[6] translated as "Deer bleat youyou while eating wild Hao" in the Chinese Book of Odes.

How this links my whole life with qinghao will probably remain an interesting coincidence forever.

—&#;Tu Youyou, when interviewed in after being awarded the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award^[7]

She attended Xiaoshi Middle School for junior high school and the first year of high school, before transferring to Ningbo Middle School in A tuberculosis infection interrupted her high-school education, but inspired her to go into medical research.^[8] From to , she attended Peking University Medical School / Beijing Medical College.^{[note 2]} In , Youyou Tu graduated from Beijing Medical University School of Pharmacy and continued her research on Chinese herbal medicine in the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences.

Tu studied at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and graduated in Later Tu was trained for two and a half years in traditional Chinese medicine.

After graduation, Tu worked at the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (now the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medical Sciences^{[note 1]}) in Beijing.

Research career

Tu carried on her work in the s and 70s, including during China's Cultural Revolution.

Schistosomiasis

During her early years in research, Tu studied Lobelia chinensis, a traditional Chinese medicine believed to be useful for treating schistosomiasis,^[9] caused by trematodes which infect the urinary tract or the intestines, which was widespread in the first half of the 20th century in South China.^{[citation needed]}

Malaria

Further information: Project , artemisinin, and dihydroartemisinin

In , during the Vietnam War, President Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam asked Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai for help in developing a malaria treatment for his soldiers trooping down the Ho Chi Minh trail, where a majority came down with a form of malaria which is resistant to chloroquine.

Because malaria was also a major cause of death in China's southern provinces, especially Guangdong and Guangxi, Zhou Enlai convinced Mao Zedong to set up a secret drug discovery project named Project after its starting date, 23&#;May ^[10]

In early , Tu was appointed head of the Project research group at her institute.

Tu was initially sent to Hainan, where she studied patients who had been infected with the disease.^[11]

Scientists worldwide had screened over , compounds without success.^[12] In , Tu, then 39 years old, had an idea of screening Chinese herbs.

Biography of jose rizal The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was divided, one half jointly to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura "for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites" and the other half to Tu Youyou "for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria".

She first investigated the Chinese medical classics in history, visiting practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine all over the country on her own. She gathered her findings in a notebook called A Collection of Single Practical Prescriptions for Anti-Malaria. Her notebook summarized prescriptions. By , her team had screened over 2, traditional Chinese recipes and made herbal extracts, from some herbs, which were tested on mice.^[10]

One compound was effective, sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua), which was used for "intermittent fevers," a hallmark of malaria.

As Tu also presented at the project seminar, its preparation was described in a 1,year-old text, in a recipe titled, "Emergency Prescriptions Kept Up One's Sleeve".

Tu youyou biography of jose rizal Tu Youyou (Chinese: 屠呦呦; pinyin: Tú Yōuyōu; born 30 December ) is a Nobel Prize-winning Chinese malariologist and pharmaceutical chemist. She discovered artemisinin (also known as qīnghāosù, 青蒿素) and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria, a breakthrough in twentieth-century tropical medicine, saving millions of.

At first, it was ineffective because they extracted it with traditional boiling water. Tu discovered that a low-temperature extraction process could be used to isolate an effective antimalarial substance from the plant;^[13] Tu says she was influenced by a traditional Chinese herbal medicine source, The Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergency Treatments, written in by Ge Hong, which states that this herb should be steeped in cold water.^[14] This book instructed the reader to immerse a handful of qinghao in water, wring out the juice, and drink it all.^[3] Since hot water damages the active ingredient in the plant, she proposed a method using low temperature ether to extract the effective compound instead.

Animal tests showed it was completely effective in mice and monkeys.^[10]

In , she and her colleagues obtained the pure substance and named it qinghaosu (青蒿素), or artemisinin in English.^[13][15] This substance has now saved millions of lives, especially in the developing world.^[17] Tu also studied the chemical structure and pharmacology of artemisinin.^[13] Tu's group first determined the chemical structure of artemisinin.

In , Tu was attempting to confirm the carbonyl group in the artemisinin molecule when she accidentally synthesized dihydroartemisinin.

Tu volunteered to be the first human test subject. "As head of this research group, I had the responsibility," she said. It was safe, so she conducted successful clinical trials with human patients.

Her work was published anonymously in ^[10] In , she presented the findings related to artemisinin at a meeting with the World Health Organization.^[18][19]

For her work on malaria, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine on 5 October

Later career

Tu Youyou was promoted to Researcher (研究员, the highest researcher rank in mainland China equivalent to the academic rank of a full professor) in , shortly after the beginning of the Chinese economic reform in In , she was promoted to academic advisor for doctoral candidates.

As of , she is the chief scientist of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences.^[20]

As of , her office is in an old apartment building in Dongcheng District, Beijing.^[5]

Before , Tu Youyou had been obscure for decades, and is described as "almost completely forgotten by people".^[21]

Tu is regarded as the "Three-Without Scientist"^[22] – no postgraduate degree (there was no postgraduate education then in China), no study or research experience abroad, and not a member of either of the Chinese national academies, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering.^[23] Tu is now regarded as a representative figure of the first generation of Chinese medical workers since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in ^[24]

Awards

• , National Science Congress Prize, P.R.

  China^[25]

• , National Inventor's Prize, P.R. China
• , (One of the) Ten Science and Technology Achievements in China, State Science Commission, P.R. China^[25]
• , (Two of the) Ten Great Public Health Achievements in New China, P.R. China^[25]
• , Cyrus Tang Traditional Chinese Medicine Award winner
• September , GlaxoSmithKline Outstanding Achievement Award in Life Science^[26]
• September , Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award^[27]
• November , Outstanding Contribution Award, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences^[28]
• February , (One of the Ten) National Outstanding Women, P.R.

  China (March 8th Red Banner Pacesetter)^[29]

• June , Warren Alpert Foundation Prize (co-recipient)^[30]
• October , Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (co-recipient) for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against malaria, awarded one half of this prize; and William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura jointly awarded another half for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infection with roundworm parasites.^[31]
• , Highest Science and Technology Award, China^[32][33]
• , Medal of the Republic, P.R.

  China^[34]

See also

• Drug discovery
• Malaria, quinine and tropical medicine
• Antimalarial medications resulted from Project (during and after the Cultural Revolution)
• History of science and technology in the People's Republic of China
• List of Chinese Nobel laureates and List of female Nobel laureates
• List of Chinese discoveries and List of Chinese inventions
• Chinese herbology and Traditional Chinese medicine
• Timeline of women in science

Notes

References

Further reading

External links