Artemisinin is the most common treatment for the rapid clearance of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite known to cause malaria. Prior studies have supported that artemisinin may have anti-cancer properties. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between pure artemisinin and A. annua tea extract when cultured with various cancer cell lines and non cancer cell lines. Additionally, this study investigated the effects of A. afra and A. absinthium on a cancer cell line. It was determined that the absolute cell number in T47D breast cancer cells was reduced in the presence of A. annua tea extract while there was minimal to no effect of the pure artemisinin and A. annua tea extract on LNCaP prostate cancer cells, L6 myoblast cells, and NIH3T3 fibroblast cells. Additionally, there was no effect seen on the T47D breast cancer cells when incubated with A. afra and A. absinthium tea extracts. Future studies should investigate the amount of artemisinin present in each of the tea extracts created from the artemisia plants and explore the mechanism of action that artemisinin may use to have an effect on the absolute cell number of cancer cells.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Cyr, Megan

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-121522-100122
• 83361

Advisor

• Rulfs, Jill
• Buckholt, Michael Allan

Year

• 2022

Date created

• 2022-12-15

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Biotechnology

Source

• E-project-121522-100122

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Last modified

• 2023-01-12