Velletri, located between Rome and the southern “Agro Pontino” agricultural area, thanks to its geographic position, the constitution of its soil, its orographical and hydrographical particularities and special climate, possesses a rich spontaneous flora among which the vast majority of all the species that grow naturally wild in Europe are to found, as in other numerous areas of Italy.

This flora includes potentially useful aromatic-medicinal plants, whose use has been handed on from generation to generation, promoting the cure of a particular strain of malaria, typical of the Mediterranean area.

Malaria for generations has plagued the inhabitants of the Mediterranean river basin, those who lived in the rich swampy zones of the marshes where the Anopheles mosquito reproduced itself because of the temperate and humid climate that favours the reproduction of the mosquito, the carrier of the parasite.

The transmission has been continuous and elevated in the swampy zones of the “Pontina” of Lazio and along the banks of the river Tiber. The peasants of the Castelli Romani became infected when they went to work in the fields during the summer months and transmitted the plasmodia to their relatives, whilst living together in huts close to deposits of charcoal. The reclamation of the agrarian land, before the use of DDT, was aided by the extracts of plants like the lavender and the wormwood that discouraged the presence of mosquitoes.

The Lavandula officinalis Chaix, typical of western Mediterranean countries, was used by the housewife to perfume the linen, but also as antiseptic and insecticide if used before the complete flowering of the plant.

Artemisa vulgaris L. (wormwood); the name is derived from Artemis, the goddess, protector of the medicinal plants that encourage the feminine organism and greatly appreciated by ancient doctors, in the cure of Epilepsy and "Saint Vitas dance". The anti-malarial therapy includes the use of the drug “Artemisina”, extracted from the Artemisa plant. Artemisa is precious because the consumption of its extract promotes an important chemical “Endoperossido” link containing oxygen atoms that interact with the “Emoglobina”,  protein of the red globules, generating particular, free radicals to lethal  for the malaria parasite. The plant was hung in the stables and attracted the flies, thus distancing them from the animals.

The Erythraea Centaurium, or China Grass, is valid as febrifuge and is appreciated for the healing of scars. Before the discovery of Quinine, it was one of the commonly used remedies against the malarial fever.

The Chenopodio ambrosioides L. which has a velvety stalk, and an unpleasant odor and being highly toxic, a time was used against nervous disturbances, the hysteria, asthma and parasitism.

The malaria is a parasitario that destroys the red globules of healthy persons who do not have either Haemolytic Anaemia or Thalassemia.

Talassemia or Cooley disease is a hereditary disease that appears in children of parents that are both bearers of Thalassemia, the B-gene. The red globules of the those affected by the disease are changed in number and shape. La malaria has selectively locally evolved to the advantage of the Thalassemic gene in the Mediterranean basin: the bearer of the single dose gene (heterozygous) has a certain resistance to the infection of the plasmodium of malaria because the parasite has difficulty in developing itself in Thalassemia erythrocyic subjects. This type of anaemia is still present in European countries because the plasmodium infected the population, high fever and the destruction of red globules of the non-anaemic individuals, survived the bearers of the gene, and still today there they risk of having Talassemic children.

The medicine, in order to combat malaria, is in search of new drugs and plants potentially useful (authentic vegetarian-based pharmaceutical substances), respecting their bio-diversity, thereby obtaining ever more effective drugs against the virulence of the plasmodium of malaria.