Which plant species is the natural source of artemisinin, the antimalarial compound?

Artemisia annua is the plant species that naturally produces artemisinin, a key antimalarial compound.

Artemisia annua is an aromatic annual herb native to temperate parts of Asia, especially China. It is also called sweet wormwood or sweet annie. Traditional Chinese medicine used preparations of the plant for fever for centuries, but modern research isolated artemisinin as the active compound.

Chinese scientist Tu Youyou and her research team identified an effective extraction method in the 1970s. Her work helped establish artemisinin-based combination therapies, which became central to treating malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum. Tu received the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this discovery.

Artemisia annua is sometimes confused with related wormwoods, including absinthe-producing Artemisia absinthium. Artemisinin is not the same as quinine, which comes from Cinchona bark, and modern malaria treatment generally uses artemisinin in combination with another medicine to reduce resistance risk.