This is Nobel winner, Tu Youyou, in the early 1970s, she discovered the malaria treatment artemisinin that saved tens of millions of lives by following a 1,600-year-old Chinese medical recipe. She realized the herb had to be prepared cold, not boiled and then she tested the drug on herself first.
by Algrinder
9 Comments
Winner worlds funnest Happy Birthday to you song recipient
Happy Birthday Tu Youyou
qing hao for life
>Tu Youyou was inspired by a ~1,600-year-old Chinese text (Zhou Hou Bei Ji Fang, ~340 CE by Ge Hong).
>The text described soaking (not boiling) the herb Artemisia annua.
>She realized heat was destroying the active compound, so she switched to low-temperature extraction using ether.
>It became the most effective malaria treatment worldwide and has saved millions (often estimated tens of millions) of lives.
>The research was done under “Project 523”, a top-secret Chinese government program during the Vietnam War aimed to find a cure for malaria killing soldiers.
>Her team collected 2,000+ ancient recipes and tested hundreds of extracts.
>Artemisinin was just one success out of massive trial-and-error
>Unlike most Nobel winners, She had no PhD, No international research background. Her entire career was in China
[Source 1](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7027749/) [Source 2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_Youyou)
She discovered it by following a recipe?
Alternative medicine that works is called “medicine”
She also didn’t patent Artemisinin, instead give it to the world for free. So corporations couldn’t make huge profits price gouging sick babies in Africa.
Damn Chinese commies hurting the economy!
I cannot believe I’ve just discovered this woman TODAY and hours after that I see this post, like, what are the chances???
Thank you, auntie.