Composition of essential oils and headspace constituents of Artemisia annua L. and A. scoparia Waldst. et Kit.

Abstract

Headspace volatiles (HS) and hydrodistilled essential oils (EO) of fresh aerial parts of Artemisia annua L. and A. scoparia Waldst. et Kit., were analyzed by GC–MS/FID. Artemisia ketone was found to be the most abundant component among the EO volatiles (55.8 %), as well as among HS (52.1 %) of A. annua. Additionally, in both A. annua samples, EO and HS, α-pinene (12.7 and 24.2 %, respectively) was found in high percentage. On the other hand, it has been determined that the dominant components of A. scoparia EO and HS were different; in the essential oil capillene (63.8 %) was found as the main constituent, while β-pinene (26.1 %), (Z)-β-ocimene (23.8 %) and limonene (10.7 %) were the major components among the HS. This is the first report on the composition of HS volatiles of the A. annua and A. scoparia obtained by direct static headspace.

Keywords

• gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
• artemisia ketone
• capillene
• pinene