Knowledge map of artemisinin research in SCI and Medline database

Background & objectives: Artemisinin was first extracted from the herb Artemisia annua which has been used formany centuries in Chinese traditional medicine as a treatment for fever and malaria. It has been given the 2011Lasker-DeBakey clinical medical research award. In this paper, knowledge map of artemisinin research wasdrawn to provide some information for global researchers interested in artemisinin and its relevant references.Methods: In this work, bibliometric analysis and knowledge visualization technology were applied to evaluateglobal scientific production and developing trend of artemisinin research through Science Citation Index (SCI)papers and Medline papers with online version published as following aspects: publication outputs, subjectcategories, journals, countries, international collaboration, citations, authorship and co-authorship, author keywords and co-words analysis. The Thomson Data Analyzer (TDA), Netdraw and Aureka software were employedto analyze the SCI as well as Medline papers data for knowledge mapping.Results: Global literature of artemisinin research has increased rapidly over the past 30 years and has boosted inrecent years. Seen from the statistical study in many aspects, Pharmacology & Pharmacy, and Chemistry are stillthe main subjects of artemisinin research with parasitology and tropical medicine increasing quickly. MalariaJournal and American Journal of Tropical Medicine are top productive journals both in SCI and Medline databases.Quantity and quality of papers in US are in a leading position, although papers quantity and active degree indeveloping countries such as P.R. China, Thailand and India are relatively high, the quality of papers from thesecountries needs to be improved. New emerging key words and co-words remind us that mechanism of action,pharmacokinetics, artemisinin-based alternatives, etc. are the future trends of artemisinin research.Conclusion: Through bibliometric analysis the development trends of artemisinin research are predicted. Withfurther development of artemisinin research, it is presumed that scientists might concentrate mainly on the synthesisof new compounds with activity, action mechanism, new artemisinin-based combination therapy regimens, etc