RETRACTED: Effect of Artemisia annua and Artemisia afra tea infusions on schistosomiasis in a large clinical trial
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Background and objective Schistosomiasis (bilharzia), a serious neglected tropical disease affecting millions, has few cost-effective treatments, so two Artemisia wormwood species, A. annua and A. afra, were compared with the current standard praziquantel (PZQ) treatment in an 800 patient clinical trial, August-November of 2015.Methods The double blind, randomized, superiority clinical trial had three treatment arms: 400 for PZQ, 200 for A. annua, and 200 for A. afra. PZQ-treated patients followed manufacturer posology. Artemisia-treated patients received 1 l/d of dry leaf/twig tea infusions divided into 3 aliquots daily, for 7 days with 28-day follow-up.Results Of 800 enrolled patients having an average of >700 Schistosoma mansoni eggs per fecal sample, 780 completed the trial. Within 14 days of treatment, all Artemisia-treated patients had no detectable eggs in fecal smears, a result sustained 28 days post treatment. Eggs in fecal smears of PZQ-treated patients were undetectable after D21. More males than females who entered the trial had melena, but both genders responded equally well to treatment; by D28 melena disappeared in all patients. In all arms, eosinophil levels declined by about 27% from D0 to D28. From D0 to D28 hemoglobin increases were greater in PZQ and A. afra-treated patients than in A. annua-treated patients. Hematocrit increases were greater from D0 to D28 for patients treated with either PZQ or A. annua compared to those treated with A. afra. Gender comparison showed that A. afra-treated males had significantly greater hemoglobin and hematocrit increases by D28 than either PZQ or A. annua-treated males. In contrast, PZQ and A. afra-treated females had greater hemoglobin and hematocrit increases than A. annua-treated females. Both adults and pediatric patients treated with A. annua responded better compared to PZQ treatment.Conclusion Both A. annua and A. afra provided faster effective treatment of schistosomiasis and should be considered for implementation on a global scale.
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Given that many diseases have responded to treatments using A. annua tea infusions or other forms of directly using the plant, obtaining ever increasing levels of artemisinin may not be as critically needed as previously considered.
“Given that many of the diseases, e.g. malaria, schistosomiasis, leishmania etc., that have responded to treatments using A. annua tea infusions (Munyangi et al. 2018, 2019) or other forms of directly using the plant, e.g. encapsulated powdered leaves (Onimus et al. 2013; Mesa et al. 2017) or compressed leaf tablets (Daddy et al. 2017), obtaining ever increasing levels of artemisinin may not be as”
From Enhancing artemisinin content in and delivery from Artemisia annua: a review of alternative, classical, and transgenic approaches (2021) · cites this paper as Munyangi et al. 2018
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- Authors
- Munyangi, J., Cornet-Vernet, L., Idumbo, M., Lu, C., Lutgen, P., Perronne, C., Ngombe, N., Bianga, J., Mupenda, B., Lalukala, P., Mergeai, G., Mumba, D., Towler, M., & Weathers, P.
- Affiliations
- Worcester Polytechnic Institute (US)
- University of Kinshasa (CD)
- Ministry of Public Health (CD)
- University of Liège (BE)
- Corresponding author
- Cornet-Vernet, Lucile
- Venue
- Phytomedicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-12
- Volume
- 51
- Pages
- 233-240
- ISSN
- 0944-7113 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6990975
- OpenAlex
- W2897346296
- Cited by
- 40
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 4.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Status
- Retracted
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Phytomedicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- ORBi (University of Liège) (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (R15AT008277)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Parasitology › Parasites and Host Interactions
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Parasitic Diseases Research and Treatment
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Insect Science › Mollusks and Parasites Studies
- Keywords
- schistosomiasis, Schistosoma mansoni, Artemisia annua, Artemisia afra, praziquantel, antiparasitic treatment, fecal egg count, hemoglobin and hematocrit, gender differences in treatment response, pediatric patients, retracted study
- MeSH terms
- Teas, Herbal, Adolescent, Adult, Animals, Child, Child, Preschool, Double-Blind Method, Female, Humans, Male, Parasite Egg Count, Plant Extracts, Schistosoma mansoni, Schistosomiasis, Artemisia, Young Adult, Phytochemicals
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