Malaria Herbs: Tongkat Ali and Artemisinin (Sweet Wormwood Extract Powder)

As I was preparing for traveling to the Amazon rainforest, there was a whole list of packing supplies and preliminary steps to follow.

One of these had to do with contracting malaria. Specifically, they said:

“The rainforest region we will be visiting has a history of malaria, and we recommend that each participant take preventative medicine. Prescription Malarone has proven most effective without strong side effects, and the herbal tincture Artemisia (Wormwood) is a good option.”

Seeing as I don’t do “drugs” I got some of the herbs recommended for malaria.

But then another update came down the pike:

“Our colleagues in the Ecuadorian rainforest have notified us that there has been an outbreak of malaria (at latest notice 105 confirmed cases) over the past weeks. We want you to know of this increased level of infection by the mosquito population and to strongly encourage you to choose an allopathic preventative to protect yourselves from contracting the disease.”

Uh oh!

What do I do now?

I literally have not so much as taken a Tylenol in many years. So I looked into it.

First of all, there’s the difficulty in obtaining Malarone seeing as I don’t actually have a doctor to prescribe if for me.

Secondly, the list of possible side effects is still pretty large even if they aren’t super common, and it isn’t even 100% effective against malaria. Being sensitive to drugs since I don’t use them, this didn’t sound fun.

Ultimately, after meditating on it, the decision came down to this…

I practice what I preach, even in a potentially risky matter such as this.

I would place my trust in the best herbs for malaria.

I would place my trust in my own immune system.

This is who I am and I would affirm that in this decision.

So I loaded up on Artemisinin, a powdered extract of sweet wormwood. Sweet wormwood extract powder originates from the native Asian plant Artemisia annua.

(I totally forgot about this, but Zane pointed it out to me later. Tongkat ali has been used over the years in traditional medicine to treat malaria. Several studies have been done to back up this historical use, including one that saw a combination of artemisinin and tongkat ali extract suppress 80% of infection in mice.)

The next time I head down there I know exactly what I’m bringing with me.

In the end, the mosquitoes weren’t even bad at all. Yeah, I got a few mosquito bites…

but all signs point to me NOT having malaria.

(And no, in case you’re wondering, I wasn’t even concerned about the Zika virus scare in the least bit.)

Now, do I recommend you do this if you head to a malaria infected area like a rainforest in the Amazon?

The short answer is no.

Every person must make their own choice. I share this just to share my personal decision, my reasoning for it, and as a possible alternative to the medical monopoly. When you’re concerned about malaria, two of the best herbs are Artemesinin (Sweet Wormwood Extract) and Tongkat Ali from Lost Empire Herbs.

1. Muangphrom, P., Seki, H., Fukushima, E. O., & Muranaka, T. (2016). Artemisinin-based antimalarial research: Application of biotechnology to the production of artemisinin, its mode of action, and the mechanism of resistance of Plasmodium parasites. Journal of Natural Medicines J Nat Med, 70(3), 318-334. 
2. Mohd Ridzuan, Sow A, Noor Rain A, Mohd Ilham A, Zakiah I. Eurycoma longifolia extract-artemisinin combination: parasitemia suppression of Plasmodium yoelii-infected mice. Trop Biomed. 2007 Jun;24(1):111-8. 
3. Ang HH, Chan KL, Mak JW. In vitro antimalarial activity of quassinoids from Eurycoma longifolia against Malaysian chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum isolates. Planta Med. 1995;61(2):177–178. 
4. Chan KL, Choo CY, Abdullah NR, Ismail Z. Antiplasmodial studies of Eurycoma longifolia Jack using the lactate dehydrogenase assay of Plasmodium falciparum. J Ethnopharmacol. 2004;92(2–3):223–227.

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Logan Christopher

CEO at Lost Empire Herbs

Logan Christopher is co-founder and CEO of Lost Empire Herbs, which aims to bring performance herbalism into everyday people’s lives. He started studying plants and fungi as a result of his interest in peak performance and strength training. This includes performing feats of strength such as pulling an 8,800 lb. firetruck by his hair, supporting half a ton on top of himself in a wrestler’s bridge position, and routinely ripping decks of cards in half with his bare hands. After visiting the Amazon rainforest, he received a calling to be an “Emissary of Nature” and thus bring humankind back into alignment with nature for health and well-being. You can read more about this in his book Powered By Nature.

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