Bioactive sesquiterpene lactone from Artemisia santolina

Most species of genus Artemisia L. (Compositae) are medicinal herbswith several uses in the folk medicine worldwide. In the present study, methanol extract of Artemisia santolina has been subjected for isolation of its metabolites along with evaluation of cytotoxic activity against Artemia salina larvae. The structures of the compounds determined by 1H-and 13C-NMR, HMQC, HMBC, 1H-1H COSY and Mass spectral analysis. Two sesquiterpenes, 1,5-dihydroxy-4(15) eudesman-12,6-olid (artemin) (1), 2-hidroxy-2,6,10-trimethyl-7,10-oxide-3,11-dodecadien-5-one (2) and one flavonoid, 5,7,4'-trihydroxy-6,3'-dimethoxyflavone (jaceosidin) (3) have been successfully characterized. Cytotoxicity of the sesquiterpene lactone (1), was assessed on Artemia salina larvae and resulted in IC50 value of 6.44 mu g/mL, which was more potent compared to the positive standard berberine hydrochloride (IC50 = 26 mu g/mL). In this study, the separation and identification of two sesquiterpenes and one flavone from the aerial parts of A. santolina is described. Among them the compound artemin (1) showed a toxicity effect against A. salina nauplii.