Artemisia annua L., also known as sweet wormwood and as the Chinese herbal Qinghao, has been used traditionally in China for thousands of years to promote healthy microbial balance within the body. This concentrated extract contains many health- promoting constituents such as nine terpenoids and flavonoids, one of which is artemisinin. A sesquiterpene lactone, artemisinin provides potential for a healthy fungal and microbial environment as well as cellular health. A number of studies have indicated that artemisinin, along with a number of its derivatives such as dihydroartemisinin, may provide such support through an iron and oxygen-based free-radical mechanism within the cell membranes of certain microbes.
