Tu carried on her work in the 1960s and 70s, including during China's
Cultural Revolution.
Schistosomiasis During her early years in research, Tu studied
Lobelia chinensis, a traditional Chinese medicine believed to be useful for treating
schistosomiasis, caused by
trematodes which infect the
urinary tract or the
intestines, which was widespread in the first half of the 20th century in South China.
Malaria In 1967, during the
Vietnam War, President
Ho Chi Minh of
North Vietnam asked Chinese Premier
Zhou Enlai for help in developing a malaria treatment for his soldiers trooping down the
Ho Chi Minh trail, where a majority came down with a form of malaria which is resistant to
chloroquine. Because malaria was also a major cause of death in China's southern provinces, especially
Guangdong and
Guangxi, Zhou Enlai convinced
Mao Zedong to set up a secret drug discovery project named
Project 523 after its starting date, 23May 1967. In early 1969, Tu was appointed head of the
Project 523 research group at her institute. Tu was initially sent to Hainan, where she studied patients who had been infected with the disease. Scientists worldwide had screened over 240,000 compounds without success. In 1969, Tu, then 39 years old, had an idea of screening Chinese herbs. She first investigated the Chinese medical classics in history, visiting practitioners of
traditional Chinese medicine all over the country on her own. She gathered her findings in a notebook called
A Collection of Single Practical Prescriptions for Anti-Malaria. Her notebook summarized 640 prescriptions. By 1971, her team had screened over 2,000 traditional Chinese recipes and made 380 herbal
extracts, from some 200 herbs, which were tested on mice. Tu says she was influenced by the source, written in 340 by
Ge Hong, which states that this herb should be steeped in cold water. This book instructed the reader to immerse a handful of
qinghao in water, wring out the juice, and drink it all. Since hot water damages the active ingredient in the plant, she proposed a method using low temperature ether to extract the effective compound instead.
Animal tests showed it was effective in mice and monkeys. This substance has now saved millions of lives, especially in the
developing world. Tu also studied the
chemical structure and pharmacology of artemisinin. Tu was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on 5 October 2015 "for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria." == Later career ==