Chinese mugwort Qing Hao

Seeds: 250  / Botanical name: Artemisia annu

Fragrant Chinese medicinal plant – honored with a Nobel Prize

The annual, herbaceous mugwort can reach a height of up to two meters and develops light green leaves with an aromatic, camphor-like fragrance. Its short-stalked yellow flowers develop in upright, highly branched panicles. Artemisia annua contains the active ingredient artemisinin, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine for the prevention and treatment of malaria, as well as for fever and infections, due to its antipyretic and bactericidal properties. In 2015, the Nobel Prize was even awarded to the Chinese pharmacologist Youyou Tu for research on this topic. Since 2020, the Max Planck Institute, together with the US company ArtemiLife, has been investigating the potential efficacy of Artemisia annua plant extracts in relation to the coronavirus COVID-19.

Natural habitat: Artemisia is found growing wild in China, but also in other temperate zones in Europe and North America.