Nobel laureate Tu Youyou's team makes new progress on artemisinin research

GUANGZHOU - Nobel laureate Tu Youyou's team has made new progress in their research into antimalarial drug artemisinin, a team member said on Monday.

At the ongoing third Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Science Meeting in south China's Guangdong Province, Liao Fulong, the researcher with Tu's team, said they found that there are other anti-malaria components in sweet wormwood besides artemisinin. The finding may provide new treatment of malaria, Liao said.

Tu Youyou's team also found a component in artemisinin which is believed to help improve the effect of the drug.

Tu's team is also working on using artemisinin compounds to treat other diseases, such as lupus.

Artemisinin is expected to be applied to different areas such as anti-viral, immunosuppression, antineoplastic and anti-mould, he said.

Tu Youyou, a Chinese researcher who was inspired by TCM and discovered the anti-malaria compound artemisinin, won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2015. She was the first Chinese national to win a Nobel prize in science.