Effect of Distillation Time of Artemisia Annua On Essential Oil Yield and Artemisinin Content.

Artemisia annua is commonly grown essential oil crop in Eastern Europe. In the last 3 decades, the interest in this plant increased because it is the only commercial source of artemisinin, used as a natural antimalarial medicine. Dual utilization of the plant biomass (for essential oil and artemisinin from the same biomass samples) has not been explored. The objectives of this work were to evaluate the effect of distillation time (0 min, 1.25 min, 2.5 min, 5 min, 10 min, 20 min, 40 min, 80 min, 160 min, and 240 min) on essential oil yield, on the concentration of artemisinin in the plant residue from distillation (PRD), and the antioxidant activity of PRD. The duration of the distillation time had significant effect on essential oil yield. The essential oil yield varied from 0.05 % to 0.35% in the fresh A. annua samples, with the lowest oil yield from the shortest distillation time and the highest yield from the longest distillation times (160 min and 240 min). Artemisin was apparently degraded during the distillation, showing an 84% decrease in plant samples that have been subjected to distillation for 1.25 minutes, compared to undistilled control. Artemisinin in plant samples continued to decrease up to 20 minutes and was undetected in our HPLC system in samples subjected to 40-240 minutes distillation time. Our results demonstrated that PRD constitutes a byproduct that is devoid or artemisinin. Highest essential oil yields are obtainable at distillation time of 160-240 min.