The health benefits of nitrates, nitrites and nitric oxide are numerous: cardiovascular, vasodilating, immunity strengthening, bactericidal. The blood pressure lowering effect of potassium is much stronger for KNO³ than for KCl and the authors relate this to the formation od nitrite a known vasodilator. Kapil V, Milsom AB, Okorie M, Maleki-Toyserkani S, Akram F, Rehman F, Arghandawi S, Pearl V, Benjamin N, Loukogeorgakis S, Macallister R, Hobbs AJ, Webb AJ, Ahluwalia A Inorganic nitrate supplementation lowers blood pressure in humans:...

Artemisia absinthium and A sieberi: forgotten antimalarials Reference to Artemisia absinthium as medicinal plant is found in Egyptian papyri, early Mesopotamian texts and in many parts of the Bible e.g Deuteronomy 29:18, Proverbs 5:4, Jeremiah 9:15, Lamentations 3:15, and Amos 5:7. Artemisia afra, Artemisia herba alba, Artemisia sieberi, Artemisia absinthium have been and are still widely used as antimalarials. Some of them contain molecules like luteolin, santonin or nerolidol which have properties equivalent to quinine. They all contain...

The problem of ACTs: counterfeit or unstable? A recent paper Kristel Van Acker, Marc Mommaerts, Stijn Vanermen, Jolien Meskens, Yvan Vander Heyden, and Jacqueline Plaizier-Vercammen. Chemical stability of artemisinin derivatives Malar J. 2012; 11(Suppl 1): P99 doi: 10.1186/1475-2875-11. confirms the concern raised by previous publications: “Stability of artemisinin derivatives has so far only been partially investigated and it is unclear how much this contributes to the reports of bad quality or substandard antimalarials” One...

Sun, shade or oven drying It has traditionally been accepted that drying of Artemisia annua should take place in the shade because drying in the sun would destroy many useful molecules. But recent papers have questioned this belief and have studied the effect of ultraviolet radiation on the accumulation or decrease of medicinal compounds in plants. Zhang WJ, Björn LO. The effect of ultraviolet radiation on the accumulation of medicinal compounds in plants. Fitoterapia. 2009 Jun;80(4):207-18. doi: 10.1016/j.fitote.2009.02.006....

“…your statement about solving the malaria problems with herbal medicines is frightening”. U d’ Alessandro, expert of the ITG-Antwerp, in email dated 25 Jan 2015. The large family of Artemisia plants have been used as herbal medicine for millenniums in all regions of the world. It is now well established that other plants of the Artemisia family have an antimalarial effect, such as Artemisia absinthium, Artemisia sieberi, Artemisia maritima or Artemisia afra. This is not a surprise because Chinese scientist Shengua (1095) and...