2015年10月5日，诺贝尔奖委员会在瑞典斯德哥尔摩宣布，将2015年诺贝尔生理学和医学奖授予中国女科学家和一名日本科学家及一名爱尔兰科学家，以表彰他们在寄生虫疾病治疗研究中取得的成就。她就是屠呦呦。这是中国科学家凭借在中国本土进行的科学研究而首次获诺贝尔科学奖，是中国医学界迄今为止获得的最高奖项，也是中医药成果获得的最高奖项。
On October 5, 2015, the Nobel Prize Committee announced in Stockholm, Sweden that it would award the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine to a Chinese female scientist, a Japanese scientist and an Irish scientist for their achievements in the treatment of parasitic diseases.This Chinese female scientist was Tu Youyou.It was the first time thataChinese scientist won the Nobel Prize for Science for their scientific research in China. It is themost outstandingprize ever won by the Chinese medical community and the highest prize for the achievements ofTCM.
那么屠呦呦是凭借什么获得的诺贝尔奖呢？屠呦呦，1930年12月30日于出生于浙江省宁波市，是一位药学家。上世纪六七十年代，在极为艰苦的科研条件下，屠呦呦率领的中国中医科学院团队从系统收集历代医籍、地方药志和名老中医经验入手，汇集了2000多种方药，从中筛选出200多种供筛选，最后从东晋葛洪所著的《肘后备急方》中对青蒿治疗疟疾的描述“青蒿一握，以水二升渍，绞取汁”中得到启发，把原来高温煎煮的方法改为了用低沸点溶剂乙醚来提取其中的有效成分，从青蒿中提取出了青蒿素，从而开创了疟疾治疗新方法，全球数亿人因这种“中国神药”而受益。凭借青蒿素的发现，屠呦呦也由此成为迄今第一位获得诺贝尔科学奖的本土中国科学家、第一位获得诺贝尔生理医学奖的华人科学家，由此实现了中国人在自然科学领域诺贝尔奖零的突破。
How couldTu Youyou win the Nobel Prize? Tu Youyou, born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province on December 30, 1930, is a pharmacist. In the 1960s and 1970s, under extremely difficult scientific research conditions, Tu Youyouwas the leader of a team of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. Theycollected more than 2000 prescriptions fromancientmedical books,medicalchorography and the experience of famous Chinese medicineexperts. More than 200 prescriptions werefurtherscreened out. Finally,she was inspired bythe description ofusing Qinghao (Sweet Wormwood Herb)to treat malaria inZhouhou Beiji Fang(The Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies)written by Gehong in the Eastern Jin Dynasty:“soak a handful of Qinghao intwo liters of water, then mash and filter the juice”.Therefore, the method of high temperature decoction was replaced by ether, a low boilingpointsolvent, to extract active ingredients fromthe herb. In this way, artemisinin was extracted,which provideda new method fortreatingmalaria. Hundreds of millions of people around the world benefited from this “magicmedicine from China”. With the discovery of artemisinin, Tu Youyou became the first native Chinese scientist to win the Nobel Prize andalsothe first Chinese scientist to win the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine, thus achieving a breakthrough in the field ofnaturalscience in China.
转载自《读故事识本草：中药入门读本》
