Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Variation in the chemical composition of essential oils from Artemisia afra (Jacq) ex-Wild leaf obtained by different methods and the effect of oil extracts on Artemia salina L

Oluwagbenga O Adeogun, Alfred Maroyi , Anthony Jide Afolayan

Medicinal Plants and Economic Development Research Centre, Department of Botany, University of Fort Hare, Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa;

For correspondence:- Alfred Maroyi Email: amaroyi@ufh.ac.za

Accepted: 19 February 2018 Published: 31 March 2018

Citation: Adeogun OO, Maroyi A, Afolayan AJ. Variation in the chemical composition of essential oils from Artemisia afra (Jacq) ex-Wild leaf obtained by different methods and the effect of oil extracts on Artemia salina L. Trop J Pharm Res 2018; 17(3):519-528 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v17i3.19

© 2018 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the essential oils extracted from fresh and dried leaves of Artemisia afra using hydrodistillation (HD) and solvent free microwave extraction (SFME) methods and investigate the effects of the oils on Artemia salina.

Methods: The essential oils were obtained from fresh and dried leaves of Artemisia afra using hydrodistillation and solvent-free microwave extraction methods. The compounds present in the oils were analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The oils were assayed for hatchability and lethality activities on Artemia salina for 72 h. The lethal concentration (LC₅₀) required to kill 50 % of the population of brine shrimp by each test oil was determined using a Probit regression analysis.

Results: The most abundant compound was thujone (32.02 and 30.02 % in fresh leaf by HD and SFME methods, respectively) and in dried leaf (26.57 and 25.82 %, by HD and SFME methods, respectively). Mean hatchability success rate of all the oils was 70 % while lethality activity was 30 % after 72 h at the lowest concentration of the test oils. Half-maximal lethal concentration (LC₅₀) on Artemia salina was 206.97 and 406.48 µg/mL of the oil from fresh leaf obtained by HD and SFME, respectively, while for the dried leaf, it was 277.18 and 669.30 µg/mL for the oil produced by HD and SFME, respectively.

Conclusion: The phytoconstituents in each oil varied based on the method of extraction and the state of the leaf before and after extraction. Furthermore, the toxic activity of the oils against Artemia salina suggests that they may possess anticancer properties but this needs to be further investigated

Keywords: Artemia salina, Artemisia afra, Essential oils, hydrodistillation, Solvent-free microwave extraction, Hatchability, Lethality