European consortium seeks 'green' method for producing antimalarial drug
A consortium of European universities and companies have begun work to develop and test a series of new 'green' technologies for the large scale extraction of artemisinin - a natural compound known for its anti-malarial properties. Artemisinin was first isolated by Chinese scientists in 1972 from Artemisia annua (sweet wormwood). In the early 1970s, initial testing by Chinese scientists of artemisinin extracts in mice infected with malaria showed it to be as effective as chloroquine and quinine in clearing the parasite. Today, most patients treated with artemisinin-based combination treatments show clinical improvement within 24 hours. Demand for artemisinin-based drugs has soared in recent years in response to the emergence of a malaria parasite that is resistant to practically all drugs on the market other than the artemisinins. However, the large scale production of these plant-derived drugs has been problematic, since the current technology employed is based on the petroleum derived hexane. This is an alkane hydrocarbon produced from crude oil that is both toxic and explosive, making it damaging to the environment and expensive to handle safely. 'Increased production of Artemisia annua is now happening in many countries around the world, but if we are to reduce the costs of the final drugs we need to increase yield through higher yielding varieties and introduce new, more efficient, safer and more environmentally friendly extraction systems,' said Alexei Lapkin of the University of Bath UK, one of the project partners. Over the next nine months the consortium will work on three cleaner and more cost-effective extraction technologies, involving alternative solvents such as supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2), hydrofluorocarbon HFC-134a, ionic liquids (ILs) and ethanol, to replace the hexane-based method. These solvents have already been tested and were found to have faster extraction times and allow a more complete extraction of the useful substances in the sweet wormwood leaf. They are also considerably safer, with no risk of explosions, and have a much lower environmental impact in use, while also offering the potential for biodegradability after use. The project is being funded and supported by the Dutch Government and Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a non-profit organisation. It involves universities and companies form the UK and Germany.
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