Medicinal plants as more sustainable therapeutic solutions: Artemisia annua and Artemisia afra as case studies

Humans have used botanicals as traditional medicines for millennia, yet Western biomedicine has shunned many of these as undefined and often unreliable. While not all botanicals have a strong scientific basis or can be directly used as therapeutics, two, Artemisia annua and Artemisia afra, are quite well-established for their safety and efficacy within ethnopharmacological and scientific literature. A. annua, being better studied, is especially effective against many diseases. It is inexpensive, has consistent phytochemical content within a cultivar grown in its local region, evades the evolution of parasite drug resistance, and can be reliably produced on both large and small scales. Well-defined botanical drugs offer major benefits for more sustainable global health-care. This review highlights these two plant species as examples of how the broader implementation of botanical drugs can decrease costs, promote environmental sustainability, and deliver economic benefits – especially to rural communities – by empowering them to manage their health-care needs more sustainably. Comparisons are made between the agricultural and production costs of an extracted natural product versus Artemisia as a traditional botanical medicine. The review also examines the impact of climate on these two crops and provides a brief comparison of the carbon footprints of traditionally produced botanical drugs versus their commercially produced counterparts. A specific, successful example of sustainable production of A. annua is also described. Overall, there are many well-established reasons to advocate for broader approval of botanical drugs to strengthen global health-care systems.