title: Chemical composition and biological activities of the essential oil from Artemisia herba-alba growing wild in Tunisia.
abstract: Aromatic plants can interfere in the Mediterranean ecosystem, mainly by the introduction in the environment of volatile compounds. For this reason, we studied the chemical composition and the possible phytotoxic and antimicrobial activities of the essential oil extracted from leaves of Tunisian Artemisia herba-alba Asso. The chemical composition of the essential oil, obtained by hydrodistillation, was analyzed by GC and GC-MS. In all, 24 compounds were identified. The main components were camphor (39.1%), chrysanthenone (15.0%) and cis-thujone (7.8%). The essential oil was evaluated for its in vitro phytotoxic activity against germination and initial radical growth of Raphanus sativus L., Lepidium sativum L., Sinapis arvensis L., Triticum durum L. and Phalaris canariensis L. seeds. The radicle elongation of the five seeds was affected to different extents by the oil, while germination was not affected. The oil, when tested against eight selected bacterial strains, showed low antimicrobial activity. The chemical composition of the oil of A. herba-alba can help in the chemosystematics of this complex genus. However, the recorded biological activities seem to be neither ecologically nor medicinally significant.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorie d'Ecologie Forestière, Institut National de Recherches en Génie Rural, Eaux et Forêts, BP 10, 2080 Ariana, Tunisia.
authors.forename: Ismail
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Amri
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: De Martino
authors.forename: Aurelio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marandino
authors.forename: Hamrouni
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lamia
authors.forename: Hanana
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mohsen
authors.forename: Elia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Scandolera
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: De Feo
authors.forename: Emilia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mancini
mesh_terms: D019306:Artemisia / Q000737:chemistry*; D018525:Germination / Q000187:drug effects; D009822:Oils, Volatile / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012639:Seeds / Q000187:drug effects; D014416:Tunisia
chemical_list: D009822:Oils, Volatile