Phytochemical analysis and anti-microbial activities of Artemisia spp. and rapid isolation methods of artemisinin

Abstract

Artemisia species are important traditional medicinal plants of Ethiopia which are used for the treatment of infection and non-infection health problems. The genus Artemisia (Astraceae) consists of about 500 species worldwide. In this study, the main aim was to investigate chemical components of Artemisia spp. (A. abyssinica, A. absinthium and A. annua) and evaluate their antimicrobial activities against bacterial strains. The results indicated that the crude extract of these plants was effective against selected bacterial strains. Here we isolated the well-known antimalarial drug artemisinin (7 mg, 0.004%) from Artemisia annua leaves using a rapid n-hexane fractionation method. The n-hexane extract of A. abyssinica, ethyl acetate extract of A. absinthium and n-hexane of A. annua showed varying degrees of inhibiting effect against bacterial strains such as Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 T, Salmonella enteritidis ATCC13076T, Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC1053T, boydii ATCC1233T, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 T, hospital acquired Acinetobacter baumannii. The ethyl acetate extract of Artemisia absinthium (A.abe) showed the maximum inhibiting effect (35 mm) against A. baumannii. The minimum zone of inhibition (< 3 mm) was recorded for test extract of A.ap against Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC1053T. Ethyl acetate extract of A, absinthium (A.abe) was more effective against these selected bacterial strains and the zone of inhibition ranged from 5 to 35 mm. The minimum inhibition zone (8 mm) was detected against S. typhimurium ATCC 13311 T for both A.ac and n-hexane- EtOAc fraction (8:2) of A, abyssinica. The maximum zone of inhibition (25 mm) for fraction (A.ach F4) of A, abyssinica obtained by column chromatography was recorded against S. pyogen ATCC 19,615. However, there was no zone of inhibition detected for boydii ATCC1233T due to these test extracts. Significant variations (P ≥ 0.05) were observed between all test extracts of these medicinal plants at 95% of confidence intervals. In this study, clear zones of inhibition were detected for the positive control (standard impregnated disks). Based on our results we recommend that various species of Artemisia spp. seem to have the potential for in-depth investigation for various antimicrobial activities that assisting the effort in searching for antimicrobial lead compounds.

Chemical investigation and Antibacterial Activity of Leaves Extracts of Artemisia absinthium

“…Finally, it disagrees that was reported by a yield of 8.4% [49]. Due to the type of solvent which used water as a solvent.…”

“…The existence of these phytochemicals in the extracts may contribute the plant to be known of its medicinal use especially for antimicrobial activity. Tannin, alkaloids and avonoids have been reported potential ingredients towards the treatment intestinal disorders [48], pain killer and in ammation, respectively [49].…”

“…According to [25] the phytochemical analysis of A. absinthium showed the presence of saponins, avonoids, phenols, tannins, quinones, steroids methanol ethanol extract and acetone extract showed the presence of phenols, tannins, quinones, alkaloids, carbohydrates. And also according to [49] the presence of alkaloids, avonoids, carbohydrates, tannins, quinines, proteins, phenols and terpenoids.…”

“…But, E. coli did not show antibacterial activity at all concentration due to their structural membrane. Gram positive bacteria are more susceptible towards plants extracts as compared to gram negative bacteria [49]. This is because the fact that the cell wall in gram positive bacteria is a single layer and the gram negative cell wall is multilayered structure [42,47].…”

A potential herbal therapeutic for trichinellosis

“…Many bioactive compounds have been isolated from this plant; however, artemisinin is the most active of these compounds ( 38 – 40 ). Other important constituents in A. annua include specific sesquiterpene lactones, essential oils ( 41 ), tannins, saponins ( 42 ), polyalkenes ( 43 ), phytosterols, fatty acids ( 42 ), and proteins ( 42 ).…”