1) Biomass: Artemisia leaf
Artemisia is a vigorous, erect, annual, (sometimes bi-annual), aromatic, herbaceous plant reaching 120-
200 cm or even up to 300 cm in height and 100 cm in width. Non-glandular T-shaped trichomes and 10-
celled biseriate glandular trichomes occur on leaves, stems, and especially inflorescences. There is
strong evidence that artemisinin is sequestered in these glandular trichomes.
Artemisia season in Vietnam lasting from November to August of the next year. Because of favourable
natural condition, cultivation of artemisinin in Vietnam is not very difficult.
Artemisia annual can grow on not very fertile soil. Farmer prepare soil, carefull seedling and nursery.
The seedlings are plant and taking care with irrigation if available and possible. Artemisia annual is not
affected by insects and worms so it is not nessesary to use petiside in cultivation.
After 6 months, Artemisia is havested just before flowering when the content of artemisinin in the leaves
is at high. The leaves are cut, dryed under sun, collected in bags and trasported to extraction plant.
2) Solvent: n-HEXANE
n-HEXANE, a colorless liquid with a slightly disagreeable odor, is the straight-chain alkane with six
carbon atoms. It evaporates very easily into the air and dissolves and highly flammable It is insoluble in
water and miscible with alcohol, chloroform, and ether. It is used primarily to produce solvents when it
is mixed with similar chemicals. Common names for these solvents are commercial hexane, mixed
hexanes, petroleum ether, and petroleum naphtha. The major use n-hexane is to extract vegetable oils
from crops due to its narrow distillation range and selective power.
CAS No. : 110-54-3
Formular : C6H14
Mol WT : 86.18
H.S. Code : 2901.10
Toxicity : Oral rat LD50: 28710 mg/kg