MALARLIFE • NEWS
Powerful Anti-Malaria Herb Uncovered in Tanzania
24 April 2001

Dar Es Salaam (TOMRIC Agency, April 24, 2000) – Artemisia annua, a plant which is grown in southern highlands of Tanzania has been confirmed to prevent and cure malaria, a researcher has said.

Mr. Werner Spitter, managing director of Natural Uwemba System for Health (NUSAG), the company manufacture the tablets, has told the Sunday Observer here that Uwemba pastilles, a food supplement that is made from herbs called artemesia annua (Sweet worm wood), have so far been found to be the most potent in the world.

Uwemba village is in Njombe district in Iringa region in southern highlands of Tanzania from which the name of the herb has been drawn from. He says the plant which grows well in the district is also found in Switzerland as well as China but the Uwemba species has been found to be the most potent. "While the plants are grown in Uwemba, they are harvested and exported to Switzerland where production of the food supplement is done and re-exported in Tanzania. This is because production of the tablets requires advanced technology which is not available in Tanzania for use," he says.

He says initially, the research was conducted together with Uwemba hospital which is owned by the Catholic Mission in the area and when a stage of commercial production reached he had to continue with the research in Switzerland where laboratories are equipped with modern machines. On the historical background, he says for the past three years the herb have been tested in Tanzania in which over 1000 people including adults and children used the tablets and no side effect have been observed.

In its report drawn in February this year in Bennwill, Switzerland, the company said the Tanzania Minister for Health, Dr. Aaron Chiduo had allowed the importation of 1000kg of the Uwemba Pastilles for free distribution in Tanzania. He says airtimes annua does not however, derive its potency only from itself. Nine other medicinal plants are mixed with it to give it a broad-spectrum effectiveness. The effective force of the Uwemba Pastilles, therefore is founded on the optimal composition of the plant mix, he adds. According to him already the government of Switzerland has allowed the sale of the Uwemba Pastilles in the country as a food supplement.

Africa News, Monday, April 24, 2000

© All Materials 2004 Doctors for Life International