Quantitative and qualitative variation of volatile oil in Artemisia annua and A. absinthium species from wild populations in Republic of Moldova

 

In the flora of the Republic of Moldova, the Artemisia genus is represented by 9 species. Both A. annua and A. absinthium have a large area of distribution in R. Moldova but there is a little knowledge about their bioactive compounds content. The aim of our study is to assess the variation of the content and composition of the volatile oil isolated from A. annua and A. absinthium samples harvested at full flowering from several locations from the north (3 sites), centre (2 sites) and south (3 sites) regions of R. Moldova in 2014 and 2015. The volatile oil was obtained from dried and powdered aerial parts by hydrodistilation for 2 hours in a Clevenger apparatus. The qualitative analysis of the volatile oil was performed by means of GC-MS.From each site 3 samples were collected, which were analysed individually, and then the average values (S1 – S8) for each site were calculated. Quantitatively, A. annua samples from the north had the highest content, while for A. absinthium the highest content was observed in the samples from the central region. The volatile oil yield for the two species was comparable with the literature data [1, 2]. For the samples collected in 2014, the total volatile oil content ranged from 0.84 to 1.40% for A. annua, and from 0.48 to 0.88% for A. absinthium. For the samples collected in 2015, the content varied from 0.48 to 1.40% for A. annua, and from 0.58 to 1.04% for A. absinthium. Artemisia ketone is the main constituent of A. annua oil, and myrcene was the main constituent of A. absithium volatile oil. In A. absinthium chamazulene was found in relatively high amounts (1.46 – 7.22%). A previous study on A. absithium from different geographical locations (including Moldova) found only one sample rich in chamazulene, harvested from Armenia (6.6%) [1]. A high diversity of the volatile oil content and composition was observed, both depending on the collection site and region. Further studies are under development for the identification of possible chemotypes.

Acknowledgements: The work is financed through SCOPES program of SNF, Project no. IZ73Z0_152265.

Keywords: Artemisia annua, Artemisia absithium, volatile oil, GC-MS.

References:

[1] Orava A, Raal A, Arak E, Müürisepp M, Kailas T. Composition of the essential oil of Artemisia absinthium L. of different geographical origin. Proc Estonian Acad Sci Chem 2006; 55: 155 – 165

[2] Zewdinesh D, Tesfaye B, Bisrat D. Leaf, essential oil and artemisinin yield of Artemisia (Artemisia annua L.) as influenced by harvesting age and plant population density. World J Agric Sci 2011; 7:404 – 412