The Antibacterial and Antispasmodic Activity ofArtemisia herba albaAsso. II. Examination of Essential Oils from Various Chemotypes

Abstract

The essential oils from four Arremisiu herbu ulbu populations collected in Israel were investigated for their antibacterial and antispasmodic activities. All the oils had slight antibacterial activities in the concentration range of 1-2 mg/ml. Some correlations between the chemical composition of the oils and their antibacterial activity was observed. All the essential oils tested showed marked antispasmodic effects on rabbit jejunum at about I X~O -~% .The antibacterial together with the antispasmodic effects may explain the extensive use of A. herbu ulbu in folk medicine.

Composition and infraspecific variability of Artemisia herba-alba from southern Spain

“…This oil (a) has a high level of monoterpenes with the pinane skeleton (only greater in sample D-1) and (b) one of the lowest contents of sesquiterpenes if compared with the rest of samples (Table 1). cis-Chrysanthenyl acetate has been found to be the major constituent in some A. herba-alba oils from Morocco (Benjilali et al, 1982;Lawrence, 1993), Israel (Feuerstein et al, 1986;Yashphe et al, 1987) and Algeria (Boutekedjiret et al, 1992) and a minor constituent in other samples from Morocco (Ouyahya et al, 1990) and Algeria (Vernin et al, 1995). This monoterpenoid was reported for the first time in a Spanish oil in our previous work (Salido et al, 2001).…”

“…This oil is quite unusual for A. herba-alba because this is the first time that such considerable amounts of p-cymene and a-pinene have been reported, although both compounds are common but minor components in oils from Spain (Gomis et al, 1979;Villar et al, 1983;Feuerstein et al, 1988), Morocco (Benjilali and Richard, 1980;Benjilali et al, 1982;Lemberg, 1982;Ouyahya et al, 1990;Lawrence, 1993), Israel (Feuerstein et al, 1986;Yashphe et al, 1987) and Algeria (Vernin et al, 1995). Furthermore, p-cymene is a significative component in all samples analyzed in this work (average percentage 13.2%) and also a-pinene which appears in a noticeable level, except in those samples belonging to the davanone-type oil.…”

“…Analysis of oil samples from Morocco had established the existence of at least seven chemotypes of the so-called armoise oil (Benjilali et al, 1982;Ouyahya et al, 1990;Lawrence, 1993). Other chemotypes were found in oil samples from Israel and the Sinai Desert (Segal et al, 1980;Feuerstein et al, 1986;Segal et al, 1987;Yashphe et al, 1987) and further types in oil samples from Egypt (El-Hawary et al, 1983;El-Sayed and Seida, 1990). Oil composition of this species from various areas of Algeria was used to characterize a chemotype different from those found in Morocco (Vernin and Merad, 1994;Vernin et al, 1995).…”

Genotoxic and cytotoxic effects ofArtemisia herba-albaon mammalian cells

“…It has been used in folk medicine by many cultures since ancient times for the treatment of hair loss, coughing, diarrhea, fever, vomiting, gastrointestinal tract disturbances, bronchitis, and muscular pains (Almasad et al 2007). The plant is also used as an antidiabetic (Iriadam et al 2006), antihelmintic (Khafagy et al 1971), antispasmodic (Yashphe et al 1987), antifungal (Saleh et al 2006), or vasorelaxant (Skiker et al 2010) agent. The beneficial bioactivities of A. a herba-alba are attributed to its chemical constituents, which have been extensively investigated (Yashphe et al 1987;Essway et al 1995;Djeridane et al 2006;Saleh et al 2006;Abou El-Hamd et al 2010).…”

“…The plant is also used as an antidiabetic (Iriadam et al 2006), antihelmintic (Khafagy et al 1971), antispasmodic (Yashphe et al 1987), antifungal (Saleh et al 2006), or vasorelaxant (Skiker et al 2010) agent. The beneficial bioactivities of A. a herba-alba are attributed to its chemical constituents, which have been extensively investigated (Yashphe et al 1987;Essway et al 1995;Djeridane et al 2006;Saleh et al 2006;Abou El-Hamd et al 2010). These constituents include essential oils which are largely composed of sesquiterpenes and monoterpenoids, such as 1, 8-cineole, chrysanthenone, chrysanthenol (and its acetate), α/β-thujones, and camphor (Lawrence 1981).…”