Common in southern China and South East Asia, malaria is spread by mosquito bites, which inject tiny single-cell parasites into the bloodstream. By this route, the parasites find their way to the liver, where they begin to reproduce, and then return to the bloodstream again, between nine and thirty days after the original bite. The symptoms of malaria include headache, nausea and fatigue, and the sufferer begins to feel cold and shivery, followed by high fever, profuse sweating and a fall in temperature. Afterwards, the patient is left feeling extremely weak, and unless treatment begins immediately the prognosis is not good. Anyone returning from a visit to a known malarial region, and suffering from these symptoms, should seek medical help immediately, even if they have been taking anti-malarial drugs, and are quite hardy characters.

Conventional drugs like quinine are use in the treatment of malaria, but in Chinese Medicine sweet wormwood is a famous herbal treatment. The Chinese herb qinghaosu, or artemesia, has been the subject of a study funded by the World Health Organization. It has long been recognized in Chinese Medicine for its medicinal properties and is documented in ancient texts such as the Materia Medica of the Da-guan period of AD 1092.
