http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4423-6210
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Abstract
GC and GC-MS were used to compare the composition of the essential oil hydro-distilled from fresh flowering-initiation stage foliage of the new variety Sanjeevani of Artemisia annua L. with the corresponding oils of its parental varieties. Sanjeevani is an artemisinin-rich selection from the Arogya x Jeevanraksha polycross hybridization. In Sanjeevani, 108 compounds representing 91.4 % of its oil were identified. The main compounds of the Sanjeevani oil are (E)-caryophyllene (10.2 %), camphor (8.3 %), germacrene D (7.6 %), 1,8-cineole (5.6 %) and β-chamigrene (3.2 %). The Sanjeevani oil was about 2-fold richer in sesquiterpenoids as compared to the Arogya and Jeevanraksha oils, whose main components were identified as camphor (43 % and 45.3 %), germacrene D (4 % and 6.1 %), 1,8-cineole (4.7 % and 3.7 %), (E)-caryophyllene (5.6 % and 4.7 %) and camphene (3.7 % and 2.5 %). It was inferred that, in the breeding programme of Sanjeevani, selection for high artemisinin (a sesquiterpene endoperoxide lactone) content acted as selection also for richness in volatile sesquiterpenoids. The compounds cogeijerene, pregeijerene, α-and β-isocomenes, silphinene, β-copaene, α-calacorene, deoxyqinghaosu, selina-4(15),11-dien-5α-ol, arteannuic aldehyde, dihydroarteannuic aldehyde, dihydroarteannuic alcohol, germacra-4(15),5,10(14)-trien-1β-ol and 6,10,14-trimethylpentadecanone were found in the essential oil of A. annua for the first time in the present study.