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Extraction, Purification, and Quantification of Artemisinin and its Analogs from Artemisia annua L.

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Artemisia annua - Pharmacology and Biotechnology

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Abstract

Malaria is one of the most important parasitic diseases, affecting at least 300 million people a year globally, and resulting in more than 1 million deaths. Artemisinin, an endoperoxide-containing sesquiterpene lactone isolated from the aerial parts of Artemisia annua L., which is an herb of the Asteraceae family that has been used for centuries for the treatment of fever and chills in China, is currently the best therapy against malaria. In addition, artemisinin proved effective against hepatitis B, schistosomiasis, several blood parasitic protozoans, and against a variety of cancer cell lines including breast cancer, human leukemia, colon, small-cell lung carcinomas, and drug-resistant cancers. Artemisinin demand has increased sharply since the World Health Organization recommended its use as part of the artemisinin combination therapies. Since A. annua is currently the only practical source of artemisinin, the area for the crop cultivation has expanded in Africa and Asia and the number of manufacture focusing on artemisinin production is increasing. Therefore, extraction of artemisinin from A. annua and quality control on plant crop and final products have become more and more important. Various novel methods have been developed for production and quantification of artemisinin in A. annua. This chapter reviewed the most wildly used extraction and determination methods for artemisinin and mainly introduced the artemisinin extraction under room temperature, the isolation of artemisinin, and its analogs by preparative high-performance liquid chromatography, and the quantification of density of glandular trichomes (GTs) on surface of A. annua leaves by light microscope, analysis of artemisinin in fresh and dried material by gas chromatography coupled with electron capture detector (ECD).

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Hunan Science and Technology Bureau (No. 2011TP4006-4), the Scientific Research Fund of Hunan Provincial Education Department (No. 12C0185), International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China (S2014ZR0056) and the National Science Foundation of China (No. 31270335).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Center of Engineering Technology for Utilization of Functional Ingredients from Botanicals, College of Horticulture and Hardening, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, China

    Shuoqian Liu, Na Tian & Zhonghua Liu

Authors
  1. Shuoqian Liu
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  2. Na Tian
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  3. Zhonghua Liu
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Correspondence to Shuoqian Liu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben, Germany

    Tariq Aftab

  2. US Salinity Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture Agriculture Research Service, Riverside, California, USA

    Jorge F.S. Ferreira

  3. Botany Department, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

    M. Masroor A. Khan

  4. Botany Department, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

    M. Naeem

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Liu, S., Tian, N., Liu, Z. (2014). Extraction, Purification, and Quantification of Artemisinin and its Analogs from Artemisia annua L.. In: Aftab, T., Ferreira, J., Khan, M., Naeem, M. (eds) Artemisia annua - Pharmacology and Biotechnology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41027-7_9

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