Abstract
The chemical composition of the hydrodistilled essential oil of the air-dried aerial parts of wild red wormwood (Artemisia campestris. L.) was analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The species is poor in essential oil (yield = 0.1%). Seventy-one constituents representing 57.0% of total oil have been identified. The result show that oxygenated compounds compose the major part of oil (43.7%) and the main components are (Z,E.)-farnesol (10.3%) followed by cedrol (5.4%) and verbenone (3.8%). Toxic ketones such as α.- and β.-thujone are not detected in the oil.
Introduction
The genus Artemisia. belongs to tribe Anthemideae of the Asteraceae family, which contains more than 350 species (Mabberley, Citation1998) Artemisia. is quite widespread and grows wild over the Northern Hemisphere. In Algerian flora, 11 species are present (Quezel & Santa, Citation1963).
Among them, Artemisia campestris. L. grows on the steppe and desert and is commonly known as “dgouft” or armoise rouge. The aerial parts have been used in folk medicine for many years especially against digestive troubles, gastric ulcer, and menstrual pains (Baba Aissa, Citation1991). Only limited studies are available on the chemical composition of A. campestris. essential oil. 1,8-Cineol (19.2%) was reported as the major component in northwestern Italian oil (Mucciarelli et al., Citation1995), β.-pinene (24.2–27.9%) in Tunisian oil (Akrout et al., Citation2001), and β.-pinene (6.9–57.2%) in northern Italian oil (Bellomaria et al., Citation2001). The composition of flavonoids was studied by Cavaleiro (Cavaleiro, Citation1986) followed by Rauter (Rauter et al., Citation1989). To the best of our knowledge, there are no previous reports on the chemical composition of the essential oil of A. campestris. from Algeria. Therefore, as a part of our investigation on aromatic and medicinal plants of Algeria, in this paper we describe the chemical composition of essential oil isolated from the aerial part of A. campestris. collected in Djelfa wilaya of Algeria.
Materials and Methods
Plant material
Above-ground plant material was collected in Djelfa wilaya of Algeria, in summer (June 1999), at flowering time, and was air-dried and stored at room temperature in darkness. The plant was authenticated in the botanical department, National Agronomic Institute of Algiers, Algeria (ANI), where a voucher specimen (HNLA/FA/P48) of the plant has been lodged in the herbarium of the institute.
Extraction and isolation
The dried plant material (aerial parts) was subjected to hydrodistillation for 3 h using Clevenger-type apparatus. The oil were extracted from the distillation water with diethyl ether, dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate, and reduced at room temperature under reduced pressure on a rotatory evaporator. The oil obtained was stored at +4°C until analysis.
Gas chromatography (GC)
The GC analysis was carried out on a Chrompack CP 9002 chromatograph (Varian chrom pack) using fused silica capillary column coated with DB-1 phase: 30 m × 0.32 mm, 0.25 µm film thickness temperature progression; 50°C for 8 min then 2°C/min to 250°C; detector and injector heaters 250°C; nitrogen was used as carrier gas at a flow rate 1 ml/min in the split mode, with an injection volume of 0.1 μl. The percentage compositions were computed from the GC peak areas without correction factors.
Gas chromatography-mass-spectrometry (GC-MS)
The GC-MS analysis was performed on a GC-17A chromatograph linked to a SM-QP 500 mass spectrometer using a DB-1 fused silica capillary column (30 m × 0.32 mm, 0.25 μm film thickness). It was programmed from 50°C (8 min) to 250°C at 2°C/min with helium carrier gas at a flow rate of 1 ml/min (in the split mode) and injector heater 250°C. The mass spectrometer was operated in the 70-eV EI mode with scanning from 41 to 450 amu at 0.5 s, and mass source was set at 200°C.
Identification
The retention indices of all volatile constituents were calculated using a homologous series of n.-alkanes (C5–C28) according to Van den Dool and Kratz (Citation1963). The identification of the chemical constituents was based on comparison of their mass spectral and of their retention indices and examination of their mass spectral data with those obtained from the NIST library spectra and the literature (Weyerstahl et al, Citation1992; Woerdenbag et al., Citation1993; Adams, Citation1995; Mucciarelli et al., Citation1995; Güvenalp et al., Citation1998; Rustaiyan et al., Citation2000; Vermin, Citation2000; Akrout et al., Citation2001; Bellomaria et al., Citation2001; Flamini et al., Citation2001).
Results and Discussion
Many extractions were performed and the replicate extracts were combined before concentration by high vacuum–low temperature distillation. The percent yield of the essential oil obtained from A. campestris. aerial parts in relation to weight of the dry plant was 0.1% (w/w), the odor of the extract was representative of the aerial part and is described as light yellow in color. The identity of the constituents, their retention indices, and their percentage composition on DB-1 are listed in . The compounds are arranged in order to GC elution on the DB-1 capillary column.
Table 1 Percentage composition of the essential oil of Artemisia campestris. L.
In the A. campestris. essential oil here investigated, 71 compounds were identified. These represented 57.0% of the total compounds detected. As can be seen from the above information (), the oil is rich in regard to oxygenated components (43.7%). The essential oil is mainly composed of oxygened monoterpenes (23.5%) with being the predominant constituent verbenone (3.8%). The sesquiterpene hydrocarbons accounted for 7.8% of the oil, the main component being trans.-calamenene (3.0%). The monoterpene hydrocarbons amounted to 5.5%, the main component being myrcene (3.3%).
The majors components are (Z,E).-farnesol (10.3%) followed by cedrol (5.4%). Only traces of β.-pinene, yomogi alcohol, α.-terpinene, and germacrene D were found in the whole oil. Our results show the difference in the oil composition between the Tunisian and Algerian origin of the species (Bellomaria et al., Citation2001), as α.-pinene was the main constituent in Tunisian oil. The presence of (Z,E).-farnesol (10.3%) and cedrol (5.4%) may suggest another chemotype of A. campestris.. In addition the oil of A. campestris. (), like that of many other Asteraceae-Anthemideae species, characterized by the presence of irregular monoterpene, artemisia alcohol, artemisia ketone, yomogi alcohol, cis.-chrysanthenol, lavandulol, and their acetates. The toxic ketones such as α.- and β.-thujone is not detected in our oil but are found in elevated values in other species of the Artemisia. genus such as A. gypsacea. (Vermin, Citation2000), A. absinthium. (Lawrence, Citation1992), A. verlotiorum. and A. coerulescens. var. palmate.. (Flamini et al., Citation2001).
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