CHAPTER ONE:

 INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of Study

Sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua L.), or qinghao in Chinese, is also known as, sweet annie, sweet mugwort, or annual wormwood, is a vigorous weedy annual (Ferreira et al., 2012). Artemisia annua is a traditional medicinal plants used for the treatment of infectious and non‐infectious health problems. .A. annua L. is one of the plant species listed in the WHO monographs for the treatment of malaria (WHO, 2003).  It is the only plant that synthesizes and accumulates artemisinin (Su and Miller, 2015). It is characterized by extreme bitterness of all parts of the plant (Tripathi et al., 2001). A plant, at the heart of international attention because of its curative properties, like the leaves and especially flowers have antiperiodic, antiseptic, digestive, antiprotozoal, antibacterial and antiyeast properties (Setzer et al, 2016). Some studies have reported insecticidal effects of A. annua extract including growth retardation, as well as antifeedant and larvicidal effect (Hashminia et al., 2011). The active ingredient, artemisinin (qinghaosu), was first isolated by Chinese scientists as part of an antimalarial drug discovery program established in response to a request from North Vietnam during the Vietnam War (Klayman, 2010). Artemisinin is an important natural antimalarial, effective against multi-drug resistant Plasmodium species (Janick, 2016). Artemisinin is a susquiterpene lactone a compound made up of isoprene units bound to cyclic organic esters, derived from dried leave of Artemisia annua (Stephen O, 2017).

1.2 Problem Statement

Artemisia annua L. is widely used in traditional medicine all over the world for the following treatments like, Anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, and anti-oxidant activities (Zheng et al, 2012). Despite the importance of Artemisia annua worldwide, malaria has posed a major health problem in many developing countries especially in Africa and South-East Asia. According to the World Health organization (WHO 2015), approximately 3.2 billion people are at risk of malaria, two hundred and fourteen million cases of malaria were reported in 2015 in 95 countries and more than 400,000 people died of it (Murray, et al., 2015).  The seeds of Artemisia annua L. are associated with several problems as they are scarce and very expensive as a kilogram (kg) of seeds are US$12.00 (Kindermans et la., 2007), and in Cameroon (Bamenda), a teaspoon is 10,000 France for the French Community in Africa (CFAF). Seeds are tiny and take two to six weeks to germinate.  Artemisia annua is the only proven production system for Artemisinin which is use to combat Plasmodium falciparium malaria (CNAP 2007). Also, the recent and most deadly corona virus pandemic and the presentation of Artemisia annua L. as a “miracle’’ cure has created a great interest for Artemisia annua production (WHO medicine 2020). The world demand for Artemisia annua, for the production of artemisinin is increasing and there is a problem of readily available plants (Jitendra Kumar 2014). The production of A. annua has so far been achieved by seed propagation which is accompanied with numerous short-comings (ABE 2012). There is a need for rapid and more reliable techniques to produce the plant (Ferreira et al., 2012). Hence, this research is thus, to evaluate the rapid propagation of Artemisia annua through the use of cuttings using plant growth regulators. Although vegetative propagation has the potentials to meet this gold, a suitable protocol for its application has not yet been fully developed.

 1.3. Objectives of the Study

           1.3.1. Main objective

To evaluate the impact of plant growth regulators on survival of stem cuttings for the production of Artemisia annua L. in Mbengwi Monastery.

           1.3.2. Specific objectives

• To evaluate the effect of roots and growth regulators and promoting substances of Artemisia annua L., cuttings
• To evaluate the effect of synthetic and none synthetic growth regulators on yields parameters of Artemisia annua