African Journal of
Biotechnology

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Biotechnol.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1684-5315
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJB
  • Start Year: 2002
  • Published Articles: 12487

Full Length Research Paper

Chemical constituents and antioxidant activity of the essential oil from aerial parts of Artemisia herba-alba grown in Tunisian semi-arid region

Adel Kadri1*, Zied Zarai3, Ahmed Békir4, Néji Gharsallah3, Mohamed Damak1and Radhouane Gdoura5
1Laboratoire de Chimie des Substances Naturelles, Faculté des Sciences de Sfax, B.P. 1171, 3000 Sfax, University of Sfax, Tunisia. 2Laboratoire de Biotechnologies Végétales Appliquées à l’Amélioration des Cultures, Faculté des Sciences de Sfax, B.P. 1171, 3000 Sfax. Tunisia. 3Laboratoire de Biochimie et de Génie Enzymatique des Lipases, ENIS, BPW, 1173 Sfax, University of Sfax, Tunisia. 4Département de Génie des procédés, ISET Sfax, Km 2,5 Rte de Mahdia, 3099 Sfax, University of Sfax, Tunisia. 5Laboratoire de Microbiologie, UR/08-73, Faculté des sciences de Sfax, University of Sfax, Tunisia.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 14 March 2011
  •  Published: 11 April 2011

Abstract

Essential oils and their components are becoming increasingly popular as naturally occurring antioxidant agents. In this work, the composition of essential oil inArtemisia herba-alba from southwest Tunisia, obtained by hydrodistillation was determined by GC/MS. Eighteen compounds were identified with the main constituents namely, α-thujone (24.88%), germacrene D (14.48%), camphor (10.81%), 1,8-cineole (8.91%) and β-thujone (8.32%). The oil was screened for its antioxidant activity with 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, β-carotene bleaching and reducing power assays. The essential oil of A. herba-albaexhibited a good antioxidant activity with all assays with dose dependent manner and can be attributed to its presence in the oil.

 

Key words: Artemisia herba alba, essential oil, chemical composition, antioxidant activity.

Abbreviation

DPPH, 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl; GC/MS, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.

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This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

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