Development and validation of a simple thin layer chromatographic method for the analysis of artemisinin in Artemisia annua L. plant extracts.

Owing to the development of parasite resistance to standard antimalarial treatments like chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, the demand for Artemisia annua, a key ingredient for new and highly effective antimalarial drugs, is huge. Therefore selective and precise methods to determine the content of artemisinin in dry plant material and in raw impure extracts are needed. In this work a method is described for the clear separation and extraction of artemisinin from other plant components in the Artemisia annua L.