Artemisia annuavolatiles: An interesting by-product with cosmetic and medicinal applications

Abstract

Artemisia annua L. (Asteraceae) is an aromatic annual herb endemic to the northern parts of Chahar and Suiyuan provinces in China. However, the plant now grows wild in Europe and America and it is cropped on a large scale in China, Vietnam, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Australia. A. annua is an important medicinal plant and it is mostly known as the source of an unique antimalarial constituent, artemisinin. The foliage and inflorescence of A. annua plants also yield an essential oil upon hydrodistillation, which could represent another potential commercially valuable product. The oil is characterized by a large number of terpenoids, whose composition and yields are related to the cultivars and developmental stage of the plant. Characteristic constituents are artemisia ketone and artemisia alcohol but their content is extremely variable and can also be absent, other constituents are camphor, 1,8-cineole, and germacrene D. Volatiles are also present in the aromatic waters which can represent another source of commercially valuable product for cosmetic use. Some biological activities have been attributed to the essential oil or its components: antibacterial, antifungal, and antioxidant.