Survey of artemisinin production by diverse Artemisia species in northern Pakistan

Abstract

BackgroundArtemisinin is the current drug of choice for treatment of malaria and a number of other diseases. It is obtained from the annual herb, Artemisia annua and some microbial sources by genetic engineering. There is a great concern that the artemisinin production at current rate will not meet the increasing demand by the pharmaceutical industry, so looking for additional sources is imperative.MethodsIn current study, artemisinin concentration was analysed and compared in the flowers, leaves, roots and stems of Artemisia annua and 14 other Artemisia species including two varieties each for Artemisia roxburghiana and Artemisia dracunculus using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).ResultsThe highest artemisinin concentration was detected in the leaves (0.44 ± 0.03%) and flowers (0.42 ± 0.03%) of A. annua, followed by the flowers (0.34 ± .02%) of A. bushriences and leaves (0.27 ± 0%) of A. dracunculus var dracunculus. The average concentration of artemisinin varied in the order of flowers > leaves > stems > roots.ConclusionThis study identifies twelve novel plant sources of artemisinin, which may be helpful for pharmaceutical production of artemisinin. This is the first report of quantitative comparison of artemisinin among a large number of Artemisia species.

Assessment of Iranian endemic Artemisia khorassanica : karyological, genome size, and gene expressions involved in artemisinin production

“…Regarding the importance of the ADS and DBR2 genes in the production of artemisinin, it might be concluded that the main reason for not producing artemisinin in A. khorassanica is related to the extremely low expression level of the key genes of ADS and DBR2 compared to that in A. annua. Similarly, all previous studies reported that other Artemisia species produced less artemisinin content than A. annua L. (Arab et al, 2006;Hsu, 2006;Zia et al, 2007;Mannan et al, 2010;Ranjbar et al, 2015;Salehi et al, 2018). …”

“…Artemisinin, a sesquiterpene lactone, is an effective antimalarial drug, active against some cancers, hepatitis B, and schistosomiasis (Efferth, 2009) and produced in glandular trichomes of some Artemisia species, e.g., A. afftangutica, A. absinthium, A. bushriences, A. cina, A. dracunculus, A. dubia, A. indica, A. japonica, A. moorcroftiana, A. parviflora, A. roxburghiana, A. sieberi, A. vulgaris, A. campestris, A. diffusa, A. scoparia, A. sieberi, A. deserti, A. marschalliana, and A. persica (Arab et al, 2006;Hsu, 2006;Zia et al, 2007;Mannan et al, 2010;Ranjbar et al, 2015;Salehi et al, 2018). DBR2 (artemisinic aldehyde Δ11(13) reductase) was reported as a limiting factor of artemisinin biosynthesis in Artemisia species (Salehi et al, 2018).…”

Detecting the Antimalarial Artemisinin in Plant Extracts Using Near-infrared Spectroscopy

“…This technology could also be used to study how the growing conditions of the plant affect its production of artemisinin and how different tea preparation methods affect the amount of artemisinin extracted from the plant. Different Artemisia species are known to vary 3-fold or more in their artemisinin content, and the roots, stems, leaves, and flowers can have a 50-fold variation in artemisinin content (Mannan et al, 2010). This rapid NIR method can help to study the effect of species, plant portion, maturity level, etc on the artemisinin content of teas.…”

“…Artemisinin is extracted from these plants through a simple tea preparation (Mueller et al, 2000). The leaves and flowers are typically used because they have the highest artemisinin content of approximately 0.44% as reported by Mannan et al (2010). The parasite can be removed from an infected person's bloodstream in 4-5 days by drinking one liter per day of Artemisia tea (Mueller et al, 2000).…”

Expression of artemisinin biosynthesis genes in eight Artemisia species at three developmental stages

“…According to studies conducted in 2014, malaria was found in 97 countries and territories had ongoing malaria transmission (WHO, 2014). The importance of the malaria disease was emphasized in the 2015 World Health Organization report, showing that 198 million people were infected with malaria and about 584,000 patients died of the disease most of which are African children (WHO, 2015;Mannan et al, 2010). The existence of drug-resistant strains of malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, is a challenge of the malaria disease control and to face it, Chinese scientists isolated a new drug from Artemisia annua that it provided effective protection against multi-drug resistant strains of P. falciparum (Teoh et al, 2006;Jing et al, 2009).…”