Phytochemical screening of Artemisia arborescens L. by means of advanced chromatographic techniques for identification of health-promoting compounds

摘要

Artemisia arborescens, also known as tree wormwood, is a typical species of the Mediterranean flora. It has been used in folk medicine for its antispasmodic, anti-pyretic, anti-inflammatory, and abortifacient properties. In the current study, the application of multidimensional comprehensive gas chromatography (GC x GC), allowed to obtain a detailed fingerprint of the essential oil from A. arborescens aerial parts, highlighting an abundant presence of chamazulene followed by camphor, beta-thujone, myrcene, and a-pinene. Moreover, flavonoids in the dichloromethane extract were analyzed by means of liquid chromatography with photodiode array and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-mass spectrometry detections (HPLC-PDA and HPLC-APCI-MS). Six polymethoxyflavones were identified and three of them, including chrysosplenetin, eupatin, and cirsilineol, were described in this species for the first time. The anti-angiogenic activity was investigated in the dichloromethane extract by two in vivo models, chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) and zebrafish embryos. Results showed that this extract produced a strong reduction on vessel formation, both on zebrafish (57% of inhibition, 0.1 mg/mL) and chick chorioallantoic membrane (58% of inhibition, 0.8 mg/mL).