Assessment of Antibacterial and Antioxidant Activities of Crude Extracts, Essential Oils and Pure Compounds from Artemisia absinthium

Abstract

Plants are the prime source of potentially prized active compounds. Therefore, the investigation of biologically active compounds has become the focus of the scientific community with the goal of developing new drugs. This study aimed to evaluate the antibacterial and antioxidant activities of crude extracts, essential oil, and isolated compounds from Artemisia absinthium leaf. Column chromatography and Cleavinger apparatus were used to isolate pure compounds and essential oils, respectively. In this study, phenols, quinines, terpenoids, flavonoids, tannins, and alkaloids were identified. The essential oil obtained through hydro-distillation was measured as 56%, with camphor being the primary component, comprising 41% of the total. Chamazulene and davanone were isolated as pure compounds and characterized using NMR spectroscopy. The antibacterial activities of crude extracts and essential oil against E. coli, K. pneumoniae, L. monocytogenes and S. aureus were recorded. At concentrations of 200 mg/ml, methanol and chloroform extracts showed the maximum zone of inhibition and essential oil and pure compounds, at 60 mg/ml, showed higher inhibiting ability. The antioxidant activity was evaluated at 1000 μg/ml, and the % DPPH inhibition ranges from 94.30% to 99.87% and 81.65% to 95.22% for the crude extracts and pure isolates, respectively. Therefore, both the crude extracts and the pure isolates have potential benefits for antioxidant activity, but the crude extracts could be more effective for consumers due to the synergistic effects of multiple constituents