Traditional Chinese medicine unleashes hidden potential

Tu Youyou,winner of China's first Nobel Prize in medicine.[Photo by China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences/Asianewsphoto]

Eighty-four-year-old Tu Youyou arrived in Sweden on Friday to collect China's first Nobel Prize in medicine for creating an anti-malarial drug that saved millions of people across the world.

Half a century ago, the pharmacologist derived artemisinin from sweet wormwood, which she found cited in a 4th century traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) text as an ingredient to cure fever, developing a crucial drug that has significantly reduced mortality rates for malaria patients.

The laureate is scheduled to deliver a speech in Stockholm, titled "Artemisinin is a gift that TCM has for the world."

Statistics show more than 240 million people in Sub-Sahara Africa have benefitted from artemisinin, and more than 1.5 million lives are estimated to have been saved thanks to the drug since 2000.

Apart from contribution to the global fight against malaria, TCM also played a vital role in the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak across China in 2003.

However, TCM, which is based on set of beliefs about human biology, including the existence of a life force, "qi", is seldom understood or embraced by the West. Some have even labeled it a "pseudoscience."

It is true it lacks a standardized guideline to administer treatments prescribed by practioners and therapists. But it is unfair to negate TCM as a whole, which is based on more than 2,000 years of practice in China.

Fortunately, the case is changing. After decades of scientific research, TCM has received wide recognition outside China and will offer more contributions to the world.