Continuous-Flow Synthesis of the Anti-Malaria Drug Artemisinin

Malaria is a serious global health issue. Artemisinin combination treatments are the first-line drugs, but supplies are limited because artemisinin is obtained solely by extraction from Artemisia annua. A continuous-flow process that converts dihydroartemisinic acid into artemisinin (see scheme) was shown to be an inexpensive and scalable process that can ensure a steady, affordable supply of artemisinin.

• François Lévesque¹
• Peter H. Seeberger^1,2

• ¹Department for Biomolecular Systems, Max-Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, Germany
• ²Institute for Chemistry and Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

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