Malaria, which dates back to 450 A.D., may have killed half of all the people who ever lived. And while malaria is not a major problem in the United States, it certainly is in Africa. In fact, some 3,000 African children die of malaria EACH DAY.

Hard to believe it took so long for conventional medicine to accept the herbal drug artemisinin as an effective treatment for malaria -- although it's been used in China for a millennium and a half, it's been considered "acceptable" by modern medicine for only 40 years.

If you are interested in using this for malaria I found a link that discusses the doses or you can search around on Google for other resources.

But now it's in short supply, and producing drugs with smaller dosages won't work -- a drug containing only half of the active ingredient won't cure malaria and, in fact, will create drug resistance. Two well-known malaria drugs -- chloroquine and pyrimethamine -- are already useless because of drug resistance.

But the LAST thing you would want to do is take conventional drugs like Lariam (a dangerous traditional drug for malaria) that are fraught with dangerous side effects. It has been known for over a decade that this drug can cause psychiatric problems.

Some natural options, in addition to artemisinin, that could save millions from malaria's deadly grip without drugs:

• Garlic, especially when combined with the amino acid arginine
• Two species of fungi

Mary, a Vital Votes registered nurse from Cabool, Missouri, notes another problem with the modern use of artemisinin:

" ? 'medical science' has just found a way to profit from it in the past 40 years.  Unfortunately you can not really make a profit on herbs unless you process the life out of them or you genetically modify them so they can be patented, but no longer are good for their original purpose."

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