The essential oil of cultivated Artemisia afra (Jacq.) from Zimbabwe

✍ Scribed by Lameck S. Chagonda; Christopher Makanda; Jean-Claude Chalchat

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 85 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0882-5734
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1026(199903/04)14:2<140::aid-ffj800>3.0.co;2-r

✦ Synopsis

The steam-distilled essential oils from plants of Artemisia afra (Jacq.) (Compositae) from the wild and organically cultivated at two pilot sites in Zimbabwe were analysed by GC±MS. The major components of plants in the wild were artemisia ketone (6.3±41.9%), 1,8-cineole (0.1±27.9%), a-copaene/camphor (8.5±27.1%) and santolina alcohol (3.1±10.1%). Two chemotypes were identi®ed from the cultivated plants. The major components of oil for fresh and semi-dried herb from the cultivated plants from one site were artemisia ketone (32.1±34.8%), a-copaene/camphor (21.8±24.4%), 1,8-cineole (10.9±15.7%) and santolina alcohol (2.7±8.0%). The major components of oil from the other site from fresh and semi-dried herb of cultivated plants were 1,8-cineole (22.5±29.3%), a-copaene/camphor (6.2±21.3%), borneol (14.2±19.1%), and camphene (3.0±5.6%). Bornyl acetate (1.6±4.2%), b-caryophyllene (2.0±5.0%), sabinene (0.6±7.9%), g-terpinene (0.2±2.6%) and p-cymene (1.3±2.7%) were notable minor constituents.