Chemical constituents of the ethyl acetate extract from the leaf of mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris L.)

Abstract

Introduction: Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris L.) is a familiar herbal medicine and also a daily vegetable. It is one of the ingredients in the famous remedy "Cao ích mẫu" specializing in menstrual disorders or the omelet with mugwort that helps save blood flow to the brain to treat headaches. In both traditional medicine and the new drugs, diseases are usually treated by mugwort as diabetes, epilepsy combination for psychoneurosis, depression, irritability, insomnia, anxiety, and stress. To demonstrate the medicinal uses, the chemical constituents of this herbal were continually studied.
 Methods: The leaves of mugwort were collected in Ba Ria - Vung Tau province, Vietnam. The plant was identified by the late pharmacist and botanist Binh Duc Phan. A voucher specimen (AV001) was deposited in the herbarium of the Department of Organic Chemistry, VNUHCM–University of Science. Dried leaf powder of A. vulgaris (11 kg) was extracted with methanol and evaporated under reduced pressure to give a methanol extract (910 g), which was dissolved in methanol-water (1:9) and then successively partitioned with petroleum ether, chloroform, and ethyl acetate. From the previously researched ethyl acetate fraction, nine compounds were isolated: six known phenolic compounds (luteolin, 6-methoxyluteolin, eupatilin, o-coumaric acid, vanillic acid, and protocatechuic acid), sinapyl alcohol diisovalerate, vulgarin, and one new compound (artanoic acid).
 Results: In this research, ethyl acetate fraction was also studied. From subfraction EA4, six compounds were isolated by three skeletons: phenolic compounds (5,4′ -dihydroxyflavone and 4-hydroxyphenyl acetate), phenyl propanoid (methyl 2-O-b -D-glucopyranosylcoumarate and 2-O-b -D-glucopyranosylcoumaric acid) and uracil (5-methyluracil and uridine). The structure of the isolated compounds was determined to base on 1D, 2D NMR spectra, HR-ESI-MS, and comparison with published data.
 Conclusion: Particularly, four compounds (methyl 2-O-b -D-glucopyranosylcoumarate, 2-O-b -D-glucopyranosylcoumaric acid, 5-methyluracil, and uridine) were known for the first time from this species.