Recent Developments on Secondary Metabolite Biosynthesis in Artemisia annua L.

摘要

The genus Artemisia is one of the largest and most widely distributed genus of the family Asteraceae possessing rich phytochemical diversity. The major phytochemicals are essential oil consisting of various types of mono and sesquiterpenoid constituents. However, the genus Artemisia has come to limelight and tremendous attention because of the antimalarial drug artemisinin, a cadinane type sesquiterpene lactone endoperoxide, present in the aerial plant parts mainly leaves and inflorescence of A. annua. The extensive research work on the development of artemisinin-based drug has also resulted into semisynthetic derivatives artemether, arteether and artesu-nate, which are effective against multi-drug resistant malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum and against the life-threatning complication of cerebral malaria. Thus, there is huge requirement for artemisin-based antimalarial drug which has driven a spectacular progress on the research on this plant on various aspects including delineating and expressing almost entire pathway. This review extensively covers the aspects such as the wide repertoire of essential oil constituents in Artemisia species, and various factors affecting biosynthesis and regulation of artemisinin content in A. annua.