CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS FROM THE AERIAL PARTS OF ARTEMISIA MARITIMA L.

Irshad Ahmad Lone, Mohammad Ali*, M. Sarwar Alam, Showkat Rasool Mir and Shahnaz Sultana

ABSTRACT

Artemisia maritima L. (family Asteraceae) is a stout, slender, much branched shrub. It is used to treat ague, inflammation, intermittent fever, griping, jaundice, ophthalmia, stomach ache, toothache and scorpion sting. The plant exhibits several pharmaceutical properties. The present study was designed to isolate and characterize chemical constituents from the aerial parts of A. maritima. Phytochemical investigations of a defatted ethanolic extract of aerial parts resulted in the isolation of a naphthalene diol identified as 8-ethoxynaphthalene-1,2-diol (1), a phenyl alkene benzyl characterized as 19,27-dimethyl tetratriacont –(Z)-7-ene (2), a phenolic derivative, viz., (Z)- 4-(hexa-1′, 3′-dienyl) pyrogallol (3), a sesamol piperonylic acid derivative viz., 3,4-methylenedioxy phenol 5, 2′-methylene 3′,4′-methylenedioxy benzoic acid (4) and a biflavanone diglycoside recognized as 7-methoxy-3′,4′-dihydroxyflavanonyl-5-oxy-(5→4′′′)-5′′,3′′′-dihydroxy-7′′-methoxyflavanone-4′-α-D-lucopyranosyl-(6a→1b)-α-D-rhamnopyranoside (5). All these chemical constituents are reported for the first time from this plant. GC-MS analysis of a petroleum ether fraction of the alcoholic extract of the aerial parts showed the presence of three aliphatic diols, eight aliphatic triols and one monohydroxy alcohol. The major constituents detected were n-hexatriacont-18-en-17-ol (12.7 %), n-cosan-1,4,11-triol (12.4 %), n-cosan-1,6,18-triol (10.8%) and n-cosan-1,10,17-triol (10.7 %). Two alcoholic constituents detected in small amounts were n-henecosan-1,7-diol (2.7 %) and n-cosan-1,5,12-triol (2.6 %). Except n-hexatriacont-18-en-17-ol, all the alcoholic constituents were saturated in nature.

Keywords: Artemisia maritima, aerial parts, ethanolic extract, phytoconstituents, isolation, characterization.