Pamela Weathers
A common plant that is safe to consume and has long been used in traditional medicines may represent a robust treatment option for malaria as resistance grows to combination drugs that contain just one chemical from the plant, according to a letter co-written by WPI researcher Pamela Weathers and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Weathers, a professor in the Department of Biology and Biotechnology, and her co-authors wrote that a pure form of Artemisia annua (A. annua) may work as well or better against the mosquito-borne disease than drugs that contain the chemical artemisinin.
Artemisia also represents a less expensive and potentially more sustainable approach to malaria, as the plant can be grown in regions commonly affected by malaria, Weathers says. The leaves can be dried and steeped in water to make tea.
“To ignore millennia of safe, efficacious use of Artemisia, a potent botanical drug, is and would continue to be a missed opportunity for a remedy against malaria,” Weathers says.
Artemisia, also known as sweet wormwood, has long been used as a traditional medicine in Africa and Asia. Artemisinin was isolated from the plant in the 1970s and became an important component of modern malaria drugs.
Co-authors on the letter were Stephen M. Rich, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Dr. Dominique Mazier of Sorbonne University. The letter was published online March 26, 2025, and can be viewed by JAMA subscribers here.
Weathers also signed a recent editorial published in the French newspaper Le Monde that called for an international clinical trial to investigate the effectiveness of the whole Artemisia plant against malaria. Research into the plant has been underfunded, the group of nearly 30 doctors, nurses, and researchers from around the world wrote.
“With the emergence of resistance to artemisinin-based drugs, action is urgent,” the editorial says.