2 key elements to know about ethnobotanism

In the future, herbal medicine will be increasingly influenced by scientific, technological or economic factors. Research is constantly leading to new discoveries that could lead to major advances in the world. Here are some facts that might interest you.

• Although they follow a different approach, ethnobotanists pursue the same objective and demonstrate the same rigour in the study of the role of plants in different cultures and traditional societies.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) recognized that many people around the world use regional and traditional remedies and that often (especially in developing countries), these remedies are more affordable than pharmaceutical products.

• The history of Chinese mugwort (Artemisia annua), or qing haoin Chinese, is a good illustration of the tremendous impact that herbal medicines can have on the future of medicine.
• In the 1970s, Chinese scientists looking for remedies against malaria, rediscovered the potential of Chinese mugwort.
• The research that followed revealed that its active ingredient, artemisinin, was extremely effective in the fight against the parasite responsible for malaria, transmitted between humans via mosquitoes.
• Millions of people die of it each year. ACT (artemisinin‐based combination therapy), combinations containing artemisinin derivatives associated with other molecules, have revolutionized the fight against malaria: three days of treatment are sufficient.
• This is why the WHO has chosen to prioritize its use, which has helped to save millions of lives worldwide to date. However, this medication is expensive: its cost is 15 times higher than the previous generation of antimalarial medications.
• Economically, artemisinin has also shown that it can work miracles. In 2003, Médecins sans frontières (MSF) (Doctors Without Borders) created, alongside African, Asian, European and South American research institutes, an organization called DNDI (Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative).
• For now, it has developed two forms of ACT currently used in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
• These non-patented drugs, a world first, are changing the fate of many communities severely affected by malaria, as well as the economic health plan.
• Each year, more than 500 million people contract malaria; every 30 seconds a child dies of it.