Ferrous-catalyzed Artemisinin And Some Of The Reaction With Thiol Compounds

This paper reviewed the discovery and the further studies on qinghaosu over the last decades in the field of medicinal chemistry and some pharmacological researches, and summarized antimalarial mechanisms of artemisinin. Qinghaosu is originated from traditional herb-a widespread weed qinghao, Artemisia annua L. It is the most promising one of antimalarial compounds due to its outstanding antimalarial activity and lowest toxicity. We've explored the free radical cleavage of artemisinin by ferrous ion in the presence of homocysteine. A new compound called Y¹ was obtained in this reaction, and its structure was characterized by means of its ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, ESI-MS, elemental analysis data, and X-ray crystal structural analysis. The reasonable explanation was given.