“523任务”与青蒿素发现的历史探究

The Historical Investigation into the “523 Project” and the Discovery of Artemisinin

青蒿素的发现是在一个相当复杂的社会文化环境中完成的。由于特殊的时代背景,有关青蒿素的发现及其成果的评价存在着诸多争议,甚至在青蒿素发现的代表人物之一——屠呦呦获得了拉斯克临床医学奖之后,相关的争议并没有因此而减少。这既反映出青蒿素发现的成果评判不会因为一个国外的评奖而终结,也表明人们对重大科技发明及其社会文化影响的关注依然具有重要的现实意义。本文利用档案、会议纪要、人物访谈资料以及日记等原始文献对青蒿抗疟有效粗提物、青蒿抗疟有效单体的发现与提取过程以及相应的临床验证、青蒿素结构测定过程进行了较为详尽的回溯,希望尽可能重构历史的原貌,同时也阐明青蒿素作为一个天然化合物发展成为一个抗疟新药,是一个系统工程,是多人、多机构共同参与、协作研究的成果。因此,对青蒿素成果的评价应在充分考察当时的科研组织与管理架构、科研人员具体研究活动的基础上进行,才能更为全面、公正。

The discovery of the artemisinin involved a number of people in an unusual social background. Most of the published articles of the early history of artemisinin discovery, including that in Cell, remain controversial because they are often based on reports relying on one side of a complicated story. The controversies have not been lessened by the award of the Lasker prize to Youyou Tu. Here we present a balanced account of the history about: 1) the effective crude extract of Qinghao (the sweet wormwood); 2) the extraction process of the effective antimalarial monomer; 3) clinical validation of the effective monomer; 4) the determination of artemisinin structure. Our article is based on original documents, conference records, diaries and interview records. These materials indicate that cooperation among different scientists and institutes played significant roles.