Artesunate contains lactone ring known to degrade in alkaline medium; a reaction that could serve as a novel, simple, precise and rapid spectroscopic tool for quantitative determination in bulk and dosage forms. The degradation of artesunate in nucleophilic agents was investigated. Absorption spectra of artesunate in ethanol, Britton-Robinson buffer, and ammonium buffer (pH 5-12) were obtained. The effects of time and temperature on the stability of the degradation products were also evaluated. Each change in pH caused the spectrum of artesunate to change significantly with time up to pH 12, where a prominent peak at 225 nm was observed. Artesunate follows linearity in the concentration range of 2-20 __ampersandsignmu;g/ml with correlation coefficient of 0.999 in the proposed method. At constant temperature, therefore, the degradation products of artesunate at pH 12 could be harnessed for qualitative and quantitative determination of artesunate in dosage forms and biological fluids. The method was validated for specificity, precision and accuracy.