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Chemical constituents and antioxidant activity of the essential oil from aerial parts of <i>Artemisia herba-alba</i> grown in Tunisian semi-arid region


A Kadri
IB Chobba
Z Zarai
A Békir
N Gharsallah
M Damak
R Gdoura

Abstract

Essential oils and their components are becoming increasingly popular as naturally occurring antioxidant agents. In this work, the composition of essential oil in Artemisia herba-alba from southwest Tunisia, obtained by hydrodistillation was determined by GC/MS. Eighteen compounds were identified with the main constituents namely, α-thujone (24.88%), germacrene D (14.48%), camphor (10.81%), 1,8-cineole (8.91%) and β-thujone (8.32%). The oil was screened for its antioxidant activity with 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, β-carotene bleaching and reducing power assays. The essential oil of A. herba-alba exhibited a good antioxidant activity with all assays with dose dependent manner and can be attributed to its presence in the oil.

Key words: Artemisia herba alba, essential oil, chemical composition, antioxidant activity.


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eISSN: 1684-5315