Chemical characterization and bioactivities assessment of Artemisia herba-alba Asso essential oil from South-western Algeria

Abstract

Artemisia herba-alba Asso is a medicinal plant used widely in Algerian folk medicine for the treatment of several diseases. The present work is aimed to elucidate the chemical composition of essential oil (EO) of Artemisia herba-alba. The in vitro antibacterial activity against 11 bacterial strains, and the in vivo acute toxicity and anti-inflammatory activity were evaluated. In this study fifty-four compounds accounting for 94.1% of total oil were identified by GC-FID and GC-MS analysis of the essential oil obtained from leaves. α-thujone (48.0%), β-thujone (13.4%), and camphor (13.1%) are found to be the major compounds. The results of the antibacterial activity using disc diffusion method revealed inhibition zones ranging from 10.00±0.0 to 36.00±0.9mm. Gram-positive was more sensitive to EO compared with Gram-negative bacteria. EO exhibited minimum inhibitory concentrations and bactericidal concentrations of 2.5 mg/ml to 10 mg/ml, and 5 mg/ml to 10 mg/ml respectively. The oil was moderately toxic and belongs to category 4 according to GHS, mortality was achieved at the dose of 2000 mg/kg. EO of A. herba-alba reduced significantly the edema induced by carrageenan in rat paw at 44.07% and 44.37% (after five hours) at the doses of 50 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg respectively.