Determination of Artemisinin in Selected Artemisia L. Species of Turkey by Reversed Phase HPLC

Artemisinin (quinghaosu) is a natural compound, isolated from Artemisia annua L. (Compositae), of current interest in treatment of drug-resistant malaria. Aim of the current study was to hit upon novel artemisinin sources as alternative to A. annua. Therefore, ten species of the genus Artemisia (A. santonicum L., A. taurica Willd., A. spicigera K. Koch, A. herba-alba Asso, A. haussknechtii Boiss., A. campestris L., A. araratica Krasch., A. armeniaca Lam., A. austriaca Jacq., and A. abrotanum L.) collected from different localities throughout Turkey were analyzed with respect to artemisinin amount using a reliable and fast Reversed PhaseHigh Performance Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC) analysis technique. HPLC conditions used for determination of the artemisinin content were established as follows; ACE-5 C18 column (250 x 4.6 mm, 5 μm) was employed with the mobile phase of formic acid (% 0.2 v/v): acetonitrile (50:50 v/v) mixture at the flow rate of 1 mL/min. The good linearity of artemisinin was found within the range of 0.1 – 100 μg/mL (r= 0.99908). However, our study showed that artemisinin was not detected in all investigated Artemisia species of Turkish origin.