Extraction, Identification of organic compounds in Artemisia herba-alba and study their stability and their biological activity

Abstract

This study includes extraction, Identification of organic Compounds in Artemisia herba-alba and study their stability and their biological activity. The extract of volatile oil was obtained from the aerial part of the Artemisia plant by the Soxhlet instrument and clevenger-type apparatus. The cold and hot aqueous extract were compared by identification methods, isolation, and medical application. The preliminary chemical studies showed the presence of many components that have medicinal and biological activities in the cold and hot aqueous extract such as flavonoids, tannins, glycosides, soaps, carbohydrates, alkaloids, coumarins, terpenes, and phenol derivatives. The active organic chemical compounds in the oil extract were diagnosed by gas chromatography (GC-Ms): Resulted in 15 active organic compounds. As for (T.L.C), and column chromatography (C.C). Isolated two organic compounds and diagnosed by spectroscopy, FT-IR, and UV-visible spectroscopy technology. Study thermal and photochemical stability of separated active organic compounds were studied by exposing the oil to different temperatures (25- 95) C° for periods (1-10) hr. In addition, the oil was exported to light at wavelengths (254 - 365) nm at a specific time and then diagnosed by spectroscopic methods. Minor changes resulted in the organic compounds because of their high stability, which indicates that the A.herba-alba oil contains several compounds that have higher stability when stored and exposed to heat and light. The biological activity of the extracted oil was studied on three types of bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeuroginosa) and one type of fungi (Candida albicans). The concentrations used in this experiment are (0.05, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3) µl. The results showed the positive biological activity of A. herba-alba plant oil on both bacteria and fungi in concentration (0.2 and 0.3) µl. Oils extracted by the hot aqueous III method showed greater efficacy against selected microorganisms in the laboratory. As for the determination of trace elements in A.herba-alba plant oil, the result showed that A.herba-alba oil contained the trace elements in the hot and cold extracts relative to the cold extract: zinc, iron, cobalt, and manganese (21.31, 6.66, 0.384, and 3.55) ppm. As for the hot extract: zinc, iron, cobalt, manganese (27.31, 33.6, 0.89 and 48.55) ppm.