Artemisinin, the endoperoxide sesquiterpene lactone produced by the Chinese medicinal herb Artemisia annua, is very difficult to synthesise. Moreover, its production by mean of cell, tissue or organ cultures is very low. Presently, only its extraction from cultivated plants is viable. A large variation in artemisinin content has been observed in the leaves of plants from different origins. The genetic basis of this variation has been assessed and evidence for a quantitative inheritance of the artemisinin concentration presented. Additive genetic components were predominant, resulting in a high narrow-sense heritability estimate. Thus, goods results can be expected from mass selection for the breeding of lines of Artemisia annua rich in artemisinin. Yet, dominance variance is also present in the total genetic variability, indicating that crosses between selected genotypes should generate progenies with particularly high artemisinin content. As a matter of fact, selection and crossing, in wild populations, of genotypes with high artemisinin concentration resulted in hybrid lines containing up to 1.4 % artemisinin (on dry leaves basis).
Artemisinin, a sesquiterpene lactone endoperoxide isolated from the herb Artemisia annua L. (Asteraceae), is a highly potent antimalarial compound, which is efficient against multidrug-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum. The promotion of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) by the WHO during the past years lead to a strong pressure on the world market of artemisinin. The scarcity of artemisinin caused a price increase that strongly renewed the interest for Artemisia annua culture at a large scale. The use of varieties with high artemisinin content is a key factor for the development of such cultures. The new hybrids recently obtained by Mediplant, with artemisinin contents nearing 2%, are being presented.
A rapid, low-cost method, based on near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR), was developed to determine artemisinin and moisture content in dry powder of Artemisia annua (A. annua) leaves. A calibration set of 60 samples and validation set of 40 samples of A. annua hybrids exhibiting artemisinin content of between 0.7% and 1.6% was used. Results of partial least squares modelling indicated that NIR was accurate in predicting artemisinin content. Root mean square error values of cross-validation (RMSECV) and prediction (RMSEV) of 0.1% were calculated, in both cases. A model of moisture content was particularly accurate with RMSECV and RMSEP values of 0.8% (R = 0.99) and 1.4%, respectively.
Artemisinin is a natural molecule highly active against malaria. At present, the extraction of this molecule from the leaves of Artemisia annua L. remains the only viable method to produce cheaply large quantities of artemisinin. Agronomic research on this plant species aims to improve agricultural yields, to decrease production costs and to ensure a steady global supply of artemisinin. These research activities require an easy, rapid, low cost, and reliable analytical technique to quantify the artemisinin content in the leaves. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) methods to quantify this molecule have already been published. However, this method does not allow the quantification of the total artemisinin content in the leaves. In order to validate the TLC method, results obtained with this method were related to results for the same samples obtained by accelerated solvent extraction and high pressure liquid chromatography with an evaporative light scattering detector (ASE-HPLC-ELSD). Using the Nernst partition law, a corrective factor of 1.21 is suggested to enable information about the true total amount of artemisinin in leaf samples to be obtained within a range of 0.25 to 3%. In conclusion, this study proposes for the first time a corrective factor in order to quantify the total artemisinin content of A. annua leaves with TLC.
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