چکیده (انگلیسی):

Background: Artemisinin is the current drug of choice for treatment of malaria and a number of other diseases.
It is obtained from the annual herb, Artemisia annua and some microbial sources by genetic engineering. There is
a great concern that the artemisinin production at current rate will not meet the increasing demand by the
pharmaceutical industry, so looking for additional sources is imperative.
Methods: In current study, artemisinin concentration was analysed and compared in the flowers, leaves, roots and
stems of Artemisia annua and 14 other Artemisia species including two varieties each for Artemisia roxburghiana
and Artemisia dracunculus using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).
Results: The highest artemisinin concentration was detected in the leaves (0.44 ± 0.03%) and flowers (0.42 ±
0.03%) of A. annua, followed by the flowers (0.34 ± .02%) of A. bushriences and leaves (0.27 ± 0%) of A. dracunculus
var dracunculus. The average concentration of artemisinin varied in the order of flowers > leaves > stems > roots.
Conclusion: This study identifies twelve novel plant sources of artemisinin, which may be helpful for
pharmaceutical production of artemisinin. This is the first report of quantitative comparison of artemisinin among a
large number of Artemisia species.