Abstract
Malaria is an infectious disease that has been the cause of mortality of hundreds of people around the world. Through screening of many traditional Chinese medicinal plants, the Chinese team of experts discovered, the powerful antimalarial artemisinin, from Artemisia annua. This study deals with the quantification of artemisinin using standard HPLC procedure in selected Artemisia sp. (Artemisia vulgaris and Artemisia japonica). Mobile phase for HPLC analysis was 45% (v/v) methanol and 55% 0.01M sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.0). Chromatographic separation was performed with Shimadzu LC 2010 AHT/2010 CHT system and the samples were analysed with a reverse phase phenomenex Luna 5u C18 (2) 100A column (250×4.6mm). Isocratic elution was carried out with a flow rate of 1.0ml/min. The temperature was set at the range of 20-250C. Artemisinin was detected at 260 nm. Seasonal and Geographical variations in the concentration of artemisinin was also studied to know whether these factors have any influence in the concentration of artemisinin. The presence of artemisinin in the studied Artemisia sp. ranges from 0.0040-0.01%. Out of the two species studied, A. japonica possess the higher artemisinin content (0.01%) in summer and monsoon seasons.
