Short video spoiler history: The beginning of modern warfare

Chapter 143 Artemisinin

[In 2015, when Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the host, Mr. Anderson, knelt on one knee and held the microphone for 85 minutes without moving in order to allow the 26-year-old Tu Youyou to sit comfortably on the podium to give her speech]

[After the speech, someone asked Anderson if he felt tired. Anderson replied that Professor Tu's speech was so wonderful that time passed so quickly. Some people said that the reason why Anderson did this must be that he understood the significance of artemisinin to the world.]

[When introducing Tu Youyou, we have to mention artemisinin, and when introducing artemisinin, we have to mention malaria. Malaria, along with AIDS and tuberculosis, is listed by the World Health Organization as one of the three major global public health problems. It has been with the origin of mankind and has plagued mankind for tens of thousands of years.]

[Malaria was also called malaria in ancient times. There were related records in ancient my country very early. For example, the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine has a detailed record of the symptoms of malaria: "When malaria first occurs, it starts in the hair, then yawns, shivers, chin twitching, waist and spine pain. When the cold is gone, there is heat inside and outside, a headache as if it is about to burst, and thirst for cold drinks."]

[In plain words: malaria is manifested by sudden chills, high fever and heavy sweating, accompanied by headache, body aches, fatigue, and intermittent fever, which lasts for 2 to 6 hours, and in some cases more than 10 hours.]

There are many prescriptions for treating malaria, such as the one recorded in "Emergency Prescriptions for the Elbow": "Prescription for treating malaria: Sowbugs and 27 pieces of fermented black beans, pound them together. Another prescription: Take a handful of Artemisia annua. Soak it in 2 liters of water, squeeze out the juice. Drink it all. Another prescription: Burn garlic on white charcoal."]

[There are 27 more prescriptions for treating malaria in "Prescriptions for Emergencies". So the effect may not be that good. Although the mortality rate of malaria is not high, the number of people who suffer from it is too large. For example, Jiang Xingge, who was in his twenties in "Stories to Enlighten the World", had malaria and had to lie down for several months before he was cured. You can imagine how difficult it is.]

[During the most severe period of malaria, about 7 million people were infected with malaria each year and about 700 million people died. Before the founding of the People's Republic of my country, more than 4.5 million people were at risk of malaria out of a population of about 3.5 million. In 1970, when the malaria outbreak reached its peak, the number of malaria cases in the country exceeded 2400 million.]

In the Hexing Tea and Snack Shop, two traveling merchants from Guangdong and Fujian turned pale when they heard the news. One of them looked to be in his thirties and the other in his forties, but they had truly seen how severe malaria was.

They had originally come to Zhejiang to trade some silk, but when they heard about the grand occasion of the various countries coming to Nanjing City to pay tribute, they wanted to come and see it for themselves, so they stayed here for a short time.

Malaria is generally more common in southern regions, such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Fujian, Huguang and other provinces. As Tianmu said, once it occurs, the patient will feel sore and weak all over, and have loss of appetite. In addition, the patient is not used to the local climate and is living in a foreign country. If there is no one to take care of the patient and provide proper treatment by the bed, the patient will basically be in danger of death.

Adults with good physical conditions may be able to hold on for a while, but women, children, the elderly and other weak people who contract malaria will lose half their lives even if they are lucky enough not to die.

"Can the artemisinin that Tianmu mentioned cure malaria?" Although doing business these days is a bit risky, if there are better drugs to treat malaria, it will undoubtedly be a miracle drug for people like them who run outside all day, comparable to allicin.

Although allicin is a miracle drug, it is not a panacea. At least it is ineffective against malaria, which has been tested.

As for penicillin, although there are occasional hypes in the market that it has been developed, not a single one has actually passed any blind test.

"Since it is mentioned, there is obviously an effective treatment drug. Don't worry, the disease will be cured!" Someone said. Although he did not like the recent crazy influx of foreign merchants into Jinling and the outsiders who rushed to occupy positions in teahouses and hotels on the day when the sky curtain was lit, out of the pride of being "favored by God and a citizen of the capital", he still held up the sky curtain specially, as if it was a prescription he had discovered himself.

"That's right, don't worry, both of you. Just listen to what Tianmu has to say. I guarantee that I will give you a satisfactory answer!"

The two men traveled around all year round and had long heard that the people under the emperor's feet had their own pride. They ignored it for now and murmured, "If it can really cure malaria, it will be a great merit!"

Many people found these words helpful and are now taking careful notes, thinking of copying them down as an ancestral prescription.

[But it was after this peak that malaria cases began to drop off a cliff. This was all due to countless scientific research teams, especially the team headed by Tu Youyou, a talented woman who was born in Ningbo and graduated from Peking University. In 1972, she discovered a miracle antimalarial drug: artemisinin.]

[Tu You's major is pharmacognosy. In her professional courses, she is particularly interested in plant chemistry, herbal medicine and plant taxonomy. Therefore, when she accepted the national anti-epidemic research project, she focused on Chinese herbal medicine. She studied Aconitum, Prunus mume, turtle shell, etc. She also tried realgar and bupleurum, but the results were not ideal.]

[Later, in the traditional Chinese medicine classic "Emergency Prescriptions for the Elbow", it was discovered that the ancients had recorded that "Artemisia annua could treat malaria", which is the prescription we mentioned above. This gave Tu You's team a new research idea, and they eventually extracted artemisinin from Artemisia annua (Artemisia annua)]

[Artemisinin is a highly effective, fast-acting, and low-toxic drug for treating malaria. It is a true panacea. According to statistics from the World Health Organization, at least 2000 million malaria patients have benefited from artemisinin-based combination therapy since 2.4.]

[As Tu Youyou's research deepened, artemisinin has repeatedly achieved major breakthroughs in anti-malarial treatment. In 2015, Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She is the first Chinese scientist to win a Nobel Prize in science.]

[However, this is the fifth Nobel Prize related to malaria. The first two were for the discovery of malarial parasites in the blood and the discovery that malarial parasites are transmitted through mosquito bites. The so-called miasma in ancient times refers to bacteria and viruses in the air and various diseases transmitted by mosquitoes, malaria being one of them.]

[On June 2021, 6, China passed the international malaria elimination certification. Malaria has become history in China]

[The extraction of artemisinin is also very simple, because it is easily soluble in chloroform, acetone, ethyl acetate and benzene, soluble in ethanol and ether, slightly soluble in cold petroleum ether, and almost insoluble in water. Ethanol is an alcohol, and the preparation method of ether is also very simple.]

[However, artemisinin will decompose rapidly when the temperature exceeds 60 degrees. Tu Youyou later successfully extracted artemisinin by performing a low-boiling point extraction experiment using ether.]

In front of Fengtian Hall.

Zhu Yuanzhang quickly ordered someone to write down the extraction method. In fact, it was not difficult to say. Just put the Artemisia annua into ether and boil it at low temperature. The specific proportion and cooking time were not detailed. Fortunately, all of this could be improved through repeated experiments. "Another miracle drug," Zhu Yuanzhang said with emotion. He had discovered it. Unlike today's society, many scientists and research teams in later generations shared their research results in this medical field without reservation.

This will benefit mankind to the greatest extent.
If it were in this day and age, it would definitely be a family heirloom recipe. He was helpless about this because it was impossible to ask others to make selfless contributions.

"Malaria is transmitted through mosquitoes. Does that mean malaria cannot be eradicated unless mosquitoes are eradicated?" Everyone easily grasped the key point.

"If that's the case, wouldn't malaria come back again and again? How many lives can artemisinin save every year?"

"It is truly an immeasurable merit," Liu Ji also marveled. With such a large population in later generations, there must be many people suffering from malaria. The number of lives saved every year is calculated in millions. Moreover, the extraction principle is extremely simple. Even if someone cannot make ether, they can still extract it by controlling the temperature of ethanol, but the effect may be worse.

If things get even worse, eating Artemisia absinthium directly may also be effective.

It can be said that this antimalarial drug, which is easy to prepare and has strong efficacy, deserves the title of miracle drug.

In addition, due to the slow speed of information dissemination, the prescriptions for treating malaria in many places are different. For example, many of the prescriptions in "Emergency Prescriptions for the Elbow" are horrifying. Artemisinin directly points out the prescription for treating malaria. People no longer have to risk their lives to try those bottomless prescriptions.
"How did people in later generations eliminate malaria? It's impossible to eliminate all mosquitoes." Everyone was puzzled again, saying that this statement was too exaggerated.

"That shouldn't be possible. I've seen videos of the living devil before, such as 'The Ministry of Justice Kills Mantis' and '100 Ways to Die of Mosquitoes' that terrify cockroaches."

This statement did jog everyone's memory. Although it might cause a loss of merit, everyone still had a smile on their face. They happily discussed it for a while, but after thinking about it for a long time, they couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation. In the end, they simply ignored it. With this prescription, even if they encountered malaria, it could be easily cured.

"It should be said that it is fate. Her name directly gives the hint: 'The deer calls, and she eats wild artemisia.'" Different from the impression of women in this world, everyone is full of admiration for Academician Tu Youyou, just like Academician Wu Mingzhu.

"Women can also hold up half the sky." Someone sighed and everyone fell silent.
Prejudice is broken at this moment.

"I have been working in Africa for almost three years and have had malaria twice. I had a high fever for 3-4 days, general weakness, joint pain, headache, loss of appetite, and alternating hot and cold. Fortunately, it was not cerebral malaria, which may cause hallucinations. For example, a factory worker once saw a dog on the ceiling. Malaria can be fatal if not treated."

"To be honest, if Tu Youyou's contribution was put in ancient times, she would be called "Medicine God" or "Medicine Saint" and a temple would be built for her to be passed down forever."

"Not really. You have to know that in ancient times, men were superior to women. Even Li Shizhen was called the Medicine Saint because he passed the imperial examination and worked in the Imperial Hospital. He made such a great contribution that he was called the Medicine Saint. In the Ming Dynasty, women had a very low status, so it was impossible for him to be called the Medicine Saint."

"In fact, the current method of curing malaria is not drugs, but environmental cleanup. Clean water sources, perfect drainage systems, etc. are the way to eliminate malaria. This is why the most common malaria-infected areas are in poor areas. "

Hexing Tea and Snack Shop.

"See, I told you, I guarantee that this medicine will cure your illness!" The man who had boasted before was now looking up in dismay.

The two cloth merchants looked at each other. Although they didn't know what this man in front of them was about, they believed that less trouble is worse than more trouble, and they all smiled flatteringly and said, "Brother, what you said is very true."

Shopkeeper Wan huddled behind the counter, turning a deaf ear to the scenes in the store, muttering, "Clean water, living environment, and good eating habits are the key to preventing various diseases."

In his opinion, instead of waiting until you get sick to treat it, it is better to take precautions from the beginning to avoid suffering in the middle.

But this is just his personal idea. If the city wants to systematically improve the quality of drinking water, it can only rely on the tap water system mentioned by Tianmu. It is not something that ordinary people can decide.

This kind of major project involving people's livelihood must be handled with extreme caution, and it is unlikely to be seen for five or six years.

In front of Fengtian Hall.

Zhu Yuanzhang asked people to record a series of comments except for the debates about "Chinese medicine and Western medicine, gentlemen and ladies". Many of the discussions here are worth discussing, such as the complete drainage system and clean water sources.

Megacities like those in later generations with a population of over one million or even tens of millions must have their water supplied by a unified organization after disinfection, and the same goes for the drainage system.

By the way, with electric motors and diesel engines, perhaps they could be improved to pump water.

Zhu Yuanzhang thought secretly that this was just an idea of ​​his and he didn't have any specific ideas, but the power devices of later generations, such as steam engines, electric motors, and internal combustion engines, already had relevant drawings, so it shouldn't be difficult to replicate a tool for drawing water.

(End of this chapter)