==The benefits of Artemisinin are==
[[Artemisia Annuaannua]] had been used by the Chinese for thousands of years for treating malaria before it was lost. It was rediscovered in 1970 and has slowly returned to clinical use, especially for drug resistant falciparum malaria, but also for treatment of most cancers.
Artemisinin contains two oxygen atoms hooked together that break down in the presence of iron, by creating very reactive free radicals that kill malaria parasites and cancer cells. Both cancer cells and malaria parasites sequester iron, accumulating as much as 1000 times what normal cells store. Giving artemisinin to people with malaria or cancer results in destruction of these abnormal cells and leaves normal cells unaffected. Artemisinin is a cancer bomb!
Artemisinin and its derivatives offer the possibility of using a non-toxic form of chemotherapy that is inexpensive and readily available. Because of its excellent safety profile, it should be a consideration for cancer treatment when conventional treatments have failed or when people refuse conventional therapies.
Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) recently discovered the potential of using the anti-malarial drug artemisinin in combination with aminolevulinic acid (ALA) as a treatment for cancer. Specifically, they found that the anti-cancer properties of artemisinin are enhanced by the addition of ALA, a photosensitizer that can generate cancer cell-killing free radicals on exposure to light.
==References==
* ''http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acscentsci.7b00156''
[[Category:Treatments]]
[[Category:Alternative Cancer Treatments]]