Artemisinin, the active ingredient from tnese herbal shrub Artemisia annuapal ingredient in a range of anti-mial drugs authorized by the World Health Organization. By 2013, an estimated 100,000 small farmers in Asia and Africa were planting enough artemisiato meet world demand. Artemesia is grown primarily as a cash crop for sale to pharmaceutical companies. In April 2013 a “semi-synthetic artemisinin” (SSA) entered the market, produced via synthetic biology. This synthetic version was created by Amyris Biotechnologies in collaboration with Sanofi Aventis using $64 million dollars of philanthropic funds donated by tll & Melinda Gates Foundation. It was initially supposed to replace a third to a half of global supply, although key researchers expressed their ambition to take over the entire global market. Suspided exactly with a crash in the price of naturally-derived artemisinin. Research suggests tha... See full list on Artemisia annua, or sweet wormwood, has been used by Chinese herbalists to treat 1967, its active ingredient artemisinin haspal ingredient in a range of anti-mial drugs authorized by the World Health Organization. These drugs are collectively known as Artemisinin Combination Therapies (ACTs), and are currently considered the most effective treatment against this very widespread and dangerous disease. Artemesia is also widely used in herbal tea form as a traditional protection against mia and whole powdered versions of the leaf also appear to be effective. See full list on Until as recently as 2013, natural artemisinin was sourced entirely from an estimated 100,000 small farmers in Asia and Africa, as well as wild harvesters of the crop in China. Currently 80% of all artemisinin derived from artemisia crops is produced in China. Vietnam is a distant second (around 10%), with the remainder coming from Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. A small amount is grown in India. Farmers have also been growing trial crops of Artemisia in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Nigeria. The average crop area per farmer in China and Africa is around 0.2 hectares. See full list on Artemesia is highly prized as a Chinese national treasure for its long history of use in curing mia-like symptoms. Although difficult to grow in some areas, Artemesia has been widely adopted by tropical farmers, particularly in mial regions of East Africa, where it can also be consumed as a herbal tea for medical benefits or transformed into other ‘whole plant therapies’. Artemesia makes a good break or rotation crop for food crops such as rice and potatoes. See full list on The production of SSA, Semi-Synthetic Artemisinin, had been presented as a poster child for the field of Synthetic Biology, and is closely associated with Professor Jay Keasling – a serial biotech entrepreneur from the University of California at Berkeley. Artemisinin was chosen by Keasling and his start-up Amyris Biotechnologies as a demonstration molecule for proving out a synthetic biology process to develop isoprenoidchemicals (a class of 55,000 different molecules, many of them valuable). Artemisinin was interesting as a first candidate because its connection to a serious disease could attract philanthropic funds. Supported by a $64-million grant from tll & Melinda Gates Foundation, the researchers engineered yeast to produce artemisinic acid (a precursor) and convert that to artemisinin. Sanofi (Sanofi Aventis) announced in April 2013 that they had manufactured 35 metric tonnes (MT) in its first batch. It indicated plans to annually produce enough Semi-Synthetic Artemisin... See full list on A 2006 report from the Netherlands-based Royal Tropical Institute had predicted the effects of introducing synthetic sources of artemisinin: “pharmaceutical companies will accumulate control and power over the production process artemisia prme and local production, extraction and (possibly) manufacturing of ACT in regions where mia is prevalent will shift to the main production sites of Western pharmaceutical companies.” Additionally, artemisinin experts warned against the human cost of disrupting the recently stabilized botanical market with a synthetic version. “If it’s brought in too fast it could create huge shortages, because people will stop producing the natural stuff,” said Malcolm Cutler, technical adviser to the A2S2 initiative. That may indeed have been the initial impact of introducing SSA. Upon the arrival of the syn bio version, 2014 prices of botanical artemisinin dropped to a decade low and subsequently plantings reportedly fe... See full list on
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