Tu Youyou

What she did

Led research that identified artemisinin as an antimalarial compound, drawing a clue from Chinese medical texts and testing extraction methods.

Impact and significance

Artemisinin became a major component of malaria treatment. The achievement involved experimental research and a team, rather than the direct reuse of a traditional recipe.

This is Matria’s interpretation, not a quotation or personalised advice.

Works recorded in the archive

• Discovery and isolation of artemisinin (1972)
• Nobel lecture 'Artemisinin: A Gift from Traditional Chinese Medicine to the World' (2015)

Sources and access

• Tu Youyou, Nobel Prize facts
• Tu, Youyou. Nobel Lecture, 7 December 2015, NobelPrize.orgBibliographic reference. Consult the named edition through a library or publisher.
• The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015.Bibliographic reference. Consult the named edition through a library or publisher.
• Attributed widely following the 2015 Nobel Prize award; reported in Nobel and press coverage (2015)Bibliographic reference. Consult the named edition through a library or publisher.

This label concerns the sources on this record. It does not validate every argument an author makes or establish what is true for a reader. Bibliographic coverage does not mean every passage or quotation has been verified. Specialist review remains pending.