Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris L.) essential oils rich in germacrene D, and their toxic activity

ABSTRACT

The chemical composition of essential oils of Artemisia vulgaris L. plants collected in Lithuanian has been reported. The oils were obtained by hydro-distillation from air-dried aerial parts. Up to 75 compounds (an average 88.7– 99.3% of the total oil content) were identified by GC−MS and GC (FID). Germacrene D (10.6 ± 2.5 – 30.5 ± 2.0%) was revealed as the first principal constituent in the investigated oils. To the best of our knowledge, mugwort essential oils rich in germacrene D are quite rare. 1,8-Cineole (6.9 ± 1.9 − 9.8 ± 1.1%, in 4 oils), β-pinene (6.7 ± 1.2 and 8.4 ± 2.3%), sabinene (8.5 ± 1.8%), cis-thujone (12.9 ± 2.5%), β-caryophyllene (5.5 ± 1.3 − 16.7 ± 4.2%, in 5 samples), caryophyllene oxide (6.4 ± 1.1 − 9.3 ± 1.3%, in 4 oils), α-humulene (5.5 ± 1.5%) and davanone (6.5 ± 2.5%) were found to be the second or third major compounds. The toxic activity of five mugwort essential oil samples was evaluated using a brine shrimp (Artemia sp.) bioassay. LC₅₀ mean values (10.25–19.11 µg/mL) revealed that the oils containing appreciable amounts of germacrene D were notably toxic.

KEYWORDS:

• Artemisia vulgaris L.
• f. Asteraceae
• essential oils
• germacrene D
• 1
• 8-cineole
• cis-thujone
• β-caryophyllene and its oxide
• statistical data analysis
• brine shrimp toxicity test

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).