What is the scientific name of sweet wormwood, the plant that yields artemisinin?

The scientific name of sweet wormwood, the plant that yields artemisinin, is Artemisia annua.

Artemisia annua is also known as sweet Annie, annual wormwood, sweet sagewort, and qinghao. It is an annual member of the daisy family, Asteraceae, native mainly to temperate Asia. The plant produces artemisinin, a compound used in modern antimalarial medicines, especially artemisinin-based combination therapies.

The compound's modern scientific story is closely associated with Chinese researcher Tu Youyou. During a malaria research program begun in 1967, her team revisited traditional Chinese medical texts and improved the extraction process for qinghao. Tu's work led to the isolation of artemisinin and earned her the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Artemisia annua is sometimes confused with other wormwoods, including Artemisia absinthium, the traditional source of absinthe flavoring, and Artemisia dracunculus, or tarragon. Those species do not provide the same canonical botanical source of artemisinin. Artemisinin itself is not a general-purpose herbal cure; approved malaria treatments normally use standardized combination medicines.