A Review of Biotechnological Artemisinin Production in Plants.

Malaria is still an eminent threat to major parts of the world population mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Researchers around the world continuously seek novel solutions to either eliminate or treat the disease. Artemisinin, isolated from the Chinese medicinal herb , is the active ingredient in artemisinin-based combination therapies used to treat the disease. However, naturally artemisinin is produced in small quantities, which leads to a shortage of global supply. Due to its complex structure, it is difficult chemically synthesize. Thus to date, remains as the main commercial source of artemisinin. Current advances in genetic and metabolic engineering drives to more diverse approaches and developments on improving production of artemisinin, both in and in other plants. In this review, we describe efforts in bioengineering to obtain a higher production of artemisinin in and stable heterologous systems. The current progress and advancements provides hope for significantly improved production in plants.