青蒿

Chinese

green (blue, black); Qinghai province (abbrev.) wormwood
simp. and trad.
(青蒿)

Pronunciation


Noun

青蒿

  1. (traditional Chinese medicine) Artemisia annua, especially the dried aboveground parts of the species
  2. (erroneous) Artemisia apiacea; Artemisia carvifolia

Usage notes

青蒿 commonly refers to Artemisia annua, from which the anti-malarial compound artemisinin was extracted.

The definition of Artemisia apiacea stems from editions of Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China prior to 1977, which erroneously assigned the binomial name A. apiacea to the name 青蒿, based on the supposed distinction between it and 黃花蒿. This has been rectified in the 2010 edition of the Pharmacopoeia, which explains that 青蒿 is the “dried aboveground parts” of 黃花蒿. Many publications have attempted to clarify the confusion, including the article “Research on the true species of the traditional Chinese herb qinghao” (1987), written by the pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou who discovered artemisinin.

Synonyms

Derived terms

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.