Balcha Abera

Micropropagation of Artemisia Annua Anamed: Potent Anti-malarial Herb Balcha Abera

Artemisia annua is a highly demanded medicinal herb. It is a crop for the production of artemisinin, an important natural sesquiterpene lactone with anti-malarial effect against susceptible and multi-drug resistant Plasmodium species. A-3 is a hybrid cultivar that has been organically grown on ANAMED farm in Germany and contains 20 times more the usual content (0.01-0.42% of dry mass) of artemisinin in wild type. It is especially important for the natural treatment of malaria, because it is adapted for the warmer climates where malaria is endemic. This book could serve an indispensible input to advanced students in the field of Plant Bio-technology, Botanical Sciences, Horticulture etc. and commercial growers as well as pharmaceutical firms as it provides the reader with efficient and reproducible in vitro techniques and procedures (protocol) that enables large scale production of plant materials true-to-type for anamed (A-3) cultivar of A. annua. Packed with compelling pictures and tables it offers up to date comprehensive information on origin and distribution, botany, medicinal importance and propagation (conventional propagation and micropropagation) of the plant.