Table 4.
Estimated number of patient treatments by current artemisinin combination therapy vs plant-based artemisinin combination therapy
Combination therapy drug | Adult treatments per ton of artemisinin |
---|---|
AL1 | 1.76 million |
AS/AQ1 | 2.5 million |
pACT leaves with 0.7% artemisinin | 8.6 million |
http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/partnership/wg/wgprocurementsupply/docs/psmwg_ppACT-API.pdf p.2 [cited May 27, 2014];
Assumes a 6 day treatment with pACT, with each patient receiving 15 g dried leaves per full malaria treatment for leaves with 0.7% artemisinin. To obtain an amount of artemisinin equal to 1 T of the extracted drug, one would have to harvest 142.8 tons of dried A. annua leaves containing 0.7% artemisinin AL: Artemether/lumefantrine; AS/AQ: Artesunate/amodiaquine; pACT: Plant-based artemisinin combination therapy.