Another notable transplastomics based approach is the production of artemisinic acid through transplastomic tobacco plants which is the precursor molecule that can be used to produce artemisinin.[19] Artemisinin- based combination therapy is the preferred and recommended treatment of choice by the WHO (World Health Organization) against malaria.[19] Artemisinin is naturally derived from the plant Artemisia annua, however, only low concentrations of artemisinin in the plant can be harvested naturally and there is currently an insufficient supply for the global demand.[19] A study conducted in 2016 led by Fuentes, managed to introduce the artemisininic acid production pathway into the chloroplast of N. tabacum through a biolistics approach before using their novel synthetic biology tool COSTREL (combinatorial supertransformation of transplastomic recipient lines) to generate a transplastomic N. tabacum plant that had a very high arteminisin acid yield.[20] This study illustrates the potential benefits of transplastomics for bio-pharmaceutical applications in the future.