Phytochemical and biological evaluation of different varieties of artemisia annua linn

Abstract

Malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum is one of the most important newlineinfectious diseases of the human population worldwide. Malaria, which kills between newline1.5 to 2.7 billion people each year, continues to present an immensely difficult and newlinecomplex challenge to the health services throughout the world. The 4- amino quinolines newlineand antifolate antimalarial drugs played a significant role to combat malaria over several newlinedecades. However, the development of resistance against many of these drugs has newlinedecreased their efficacy in the cure of malaria. Presently, artemisinin, a compound newlinepresent in the leaves and flowers of the plant Artemisia annua Linn. of the family newlineAsteraceae and its semi-synthetic derivatives, artemether, arteether, dihydroartemisinin, newlineused singly or in combination with one or two other antimalarial drugs are the only newlineeffective therapies against the common and multiple drug-resistant malaria. The current newlinechallenge is to annually manufacture 330 tonnes of artemisinin for 500 million newlinetreatments, most economically. Presently, the only available resource of artemisinin is newlinethe A. annua plant which must be cultivated and processed on a large scale to produce newlineartemisinin in adequate quantities. To achieve this, improved cultivars of A. annua with newlinea high content of artemisinin and improved quality of oil have been developed in India newlinesuch as Jeevanraksha, Arogya, Sanjeevani and Jwarharti. Besides, there are several newlineInternational varieties such as Anamed A3, Mediplant and Artemis F2. After the newlineextraction of artemisinin, the marc of the herbage can also be processed for the newlineproduction of essential oil which is an excellent preservative and pesticide. Also, other newlineparts of the plant, viz., stem and roots which are left in the field, can be tested for their newlineusefulness. Thus, there is a need to identify the most useful variety of A. annua in terms newlineof its chemical composition and pharmacological action. newlineThe present study was undertaken to determine and compare the newlinephytochemistry, and biological actions of three varieties