Botanical Name: Artemisia annua, Common Name: Sweet Annie, Sweet Wormwood

Artemisia annua is the plant source of artemisinin, an antimalarial pharmaceutical used worldwide.

Comprehensive studies and traditional practice in endemic areas have shown that the tea and the dry leaves of Artemisia annua, usually consumed as a powder in a capsule or other form, contain artemisin and other active ingredients, with strong, synergystic activity against the malaria parasite, more efficient than the purified acrive ingredient artemisinin alone.

However, due to the variations in the concentration and state of active ingredients between different crops and plants and the emergence of resistance, WHO does not recommend sweet wormwood be used on its own for prevention and treatment of malaria.