Chemical composition and biological activity of essential oils from Artemisia copa Phil. var. copa (Asteraceae) and Aloysia deserticola (Phil.) Lu-Irving & O’Leary (Verbenaceae), used in the Chilean Atacama’s Taira Community (Antofagasta, Chile)

ABSTRACT

Two aromatic species from the Atacama people traditional medicine, Aloysia deserticola (Phil.) Lu-Irving & O’Leary and Artemisia copa Phil. var. copa, from Antofagasta area (North of Chile) were investigated for their essential oils (EO) chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. EO of A deserticola collected in four different spots unexpectedly contained α-thujone as the major compound instead of the β-isomer described for other Chilean and Bolivian specimens in the literature. For EO of Artemisia copa var. copa, chrysanthenone was the main compound whereas β-thujone was identified in a Bolivian specimen. These EO exerted no significant antibacterial activity on a panel of forty-four strains, whereas notable inhibition of xanthine oxidase activity was observed with A. deserticola essential oil.

KEYWORDS:

• Aloysia deserticola
• Artemisia copa
• thujone
• chrysanthenone
• xanthine oxidase

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Félix Galleguillos and the Taira Community (Antofagasta, Chile) for helping during the collection of plants and CONICYT Scholarship (Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, Chile) for PhD studies support for S. Ortiz. The authors also thank Pr Pierre Champy for providing access to GC-MS apparatus.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, Chile.