Tu Youyou – Chinese Pharmaceutical Chemist

Very few people have saved millions of people, but Tu Youyou discovered artemisinin, or qinghaosu and dihydroartemisinin, which is used to treat malaria. As a part of a team that analyzed traditional Chinese medicines, she found an herb, called sweet wormwood or Artemisia annua.

Not only did Youyou discover the ancient folk remedy but she also turned it into a modern drug by finding its medically active agent. At first, she tried to boil the herb but realized that wasn’t working and turned to a very old recipe that called for soaking the herb instead. Soaking the herb worked to release the active compound, which was destroyed when boiling because of the high heat. After she extracted the active compound, artemisinin, from the wormwood, she tested the drug on herself.

Tu’s discovery of artemisinin is regarded as a significant breakthrough of the 20th century in tropical medicine and will improve the lives of people in developing countries plagued with malaria. In fact, she was awarded the Lasker Award in 2011 for clinical medicine. Then Tu was the very first woman to win a Nobel Prize from China back in 2015 for Physiology or Medicine. In fact, the World Health Organization named the drug artemisinin an essential drug, which is the only way to treat malaria.

Her given name Youyou is taken from the sentence ‘呦呦鹿鸣, 食野之蒿’and means “Deer bleat “youyou” while they are eating the wild Hao” from the Chinese Book of Odes. The surname Tu is taken from the Chinese 图 or Tú, which means “map” or “chart”.