Addressing the controversy around malaria treatment and prevention using Artemisia medicinal plants.

The ongoing public debates on the effectiveness of malaria treatment and prevention using medicinal plants of the genus Artemisia deserve special attention from both academic and scientific institutions. In this project, we propose to evaluate the extent of Artemisia spp farming and use in Rwanda, to standardize galenic formulation of Artemisia spp according to plant metabolic contents, to perform solid clinical trials in a bid to address treatment and prophylactic potentials of these medicinal plants, and ultimately, target and empty human Plasmodium reservoirs in order to accelerate malaria elimination in high-transmission settings using the Huye District in the South of Rwanda for proof-of-concept. Priority will be given to Artemisia afra which is (i) easily domesticable and known to have negligible Artemisinin content but is (ii) likely able to cure malaria, including killing the parasite gametocytes without adverse effects. Hence, beyond contributing to the debates we hope to provide strong evidence that Artemisia afra could be a cost-effective means to engineer new tools useful to eliminate/eradicate malaria.