SYNTHESIS OF SOME DERIVATIVES OF ARTEMISININE

Artemisinine, a new antimalarial drug, has been discovered recently by scientists in China.In order to find more potent antimalarials, we have synthesized over 30 derivatives of artemisinine, i.e. ethers, esters, and carbonates of dihydroartemisinine prepared by treatment of artemisinine with sodium borohydride. They have been evaluated against chloroquine-resistant strain of P. berghei in mice. It has been demonstrated that many of these synthesized compounds are much more potent than artemisinine.