Studying the chemical composition of the essential oil of the aboveground part of Artemisia Marschalliana spreng. natural populations of Dagestan

The purpose of the study is to assess the variability of the content of the main components of the essential oil (EO) of the aerial part of Artemisia marschalliana Spreng. samples from the place of plant growth in order to search for source plants with a high yield of essential oil containing the most valuable components in terms of pharmacological activity.

Material and methods. The aerial part of A. marschalliana was collected in different natural Dagestan populations during the flowering phase in 2014. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation (Clevenger method) for 4 hours from dry raw materials prepared by conventional methods.

Results. The EO yield varied from 0.19% to 0.46% in terms of air-dry raw material. As a result of chromato-mass spectrometry, a different number of components (41–51) was isolated from the EO samples, which amounted to 96,67%; 96,54%; 97,82% of identified compounds from samples, respectively. The main common components of the EO of all populations are isomers of α-, β-pinenes, limonene, trans-caryophyllene, spatulenol. In terms of quantity and qualitative composition of the main oil compounds, samples of A. marschalliana collected in the vicinity of the villages of Tsudahar (1100 m a.s.l.) and Charoda (1490 m a.s.l.) correspond to each other. The EO sample (Botlikh population) is very different from the samples of the other two populations, which makes it possible to judge the presence of two chemotypes of A. marschalliana in the flora of Dagestan.

Conclusions. For the first time, data are presented on the study of the composition of the essential oil from the aerial parts of wild Dagestan samples of A. marschalliana. Comparison of the results on the yield and component composition of the EO of the studied samples revealed a difference in the final yield of EO, similarity and difference in the composition of essential oils, which may be due to various abiotic factors of the growing environment and conditions, time of collection. The results obtained make it possible to characterize the EO of A. marschalliana as a source of valuable components, and the plant itself as a promising medicinal raw material.