葛洪兼修道教炼丹与医药，撰成《肘后备急方》，收录大量简便易得、可供仓促救急之用的方剂，其中「青蒿一握，以水二升渍，绞取汁，尽服之」治疗疟疾的记载，成为20世纪屠呦呦研制青蒿素、获得诺贝尔奖的重要灵感来源之一。他也是道教史上重要人物，著有《抱朴子》。

Ge Hong combined Daoist alchemy with medical practice and compiled the Handy Therapies for Emergencies, a collection of simple, readily available prescriptions for urgent use. Its instruction to soak a handful of qinghao (sweet wormwood) in water and drink the extracted juice to treat malarial fever became, centuries later, a key inspiration for Tu Youyou's Nobel Prize-winning discovery of artemisinin. He was also a major figure in Daoist thought, known for his philosophical work Baopuzi.