# Artemisia annua (sweet wormwood) and artemisinin

Source: https://onco.cc/technologies/artemisia-annua-artemisinin/  
OnCo record `artemisia-annua-artemisinin` (Technology). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Sweet wormwood is the source of artemisinin, a standard malaria drug, and is promoted online as a cancer cure. Small safety studies of the derivative artesunate in advanced cancer found it tolerable, but in other studies it produced no responses. Hepatitis has been reported with artemisinin supplements and artemisia tea.

## Summary

Artemisia annua has been used in Chinese medicine for fevers and malaria, and artemisinin-based combination therapies are part of standard malaria treatment. Memorial Sloan Kettering's About Herbs summary reports cytotoxic effects of its compounds in cancer cell lines and a few safety studies in advanced cancer showing oral add-on artesunate, a semisynthetic derivative, was well tolerated with a need to monitor for ototoxicity; in other studies oral or intravenous artesunate produced no response, with modest activity seen intravenously. MSK concludes more studies are needed. Reported harms include hepatitis after an artemisinin-containing supplement, cholestatic hepatitis after artemisia tea, delayed haemolytic anaemia after malaria treatment, ototoxicity and vertigo in a breast cancer safety trial, and dermatitis with topical use. People with ulcers or gut disorders should not take it, and in the laboratory it induced CYP2B6 and CYP3A4, which could lower levels of drugs cleared by those enzymes.

## Fields

- Kind: Technology
- Status: phase-2
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Tags: complementary; supportive-care; evidence:insufficient
- Principle: Artemisinin's endoperoxide bridge reacts with iron to generate free radicals, which kills malaria parasites and, in culture, iron-rich cancer cells.
- Strengths: Approved antimalarial lineage with known pharmacology; Early safety studies in cancer exist
- Limitations: No responses in some cancer studies; Liver injury and ototoxicity reported; Possible enzyme-induction interactions

## Sources

- MSK About Herbs: Artemisia annua (page last updated 15 April 2026): https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/herbs/artemisia-annua

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- bottlenecks: [Misinformation and unproven therapies](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-misinformation/)

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