Positive interspecific plant–plant interactions in (semi-)arid ecosystems are crucial for supporting ecosystem diversity and stability, but how interactions respond to grazing combined with temporal ...variation in drought is poorly understood. In a semi-arid area in south-eastern Spain (Murcia region), we planted 1280 saplings of the palatable shrub Anthyllis cytisoides (beneficiary) under the canopy of the unpalatable shrub Artemisia herba-alba (nurse) or in open microsites between shrub patches. We applied four grazing treatments (no grazing, low goat grazing pressure, high goat grazing pressure and rabbit grazing) and two watering treatments. Sapling height and survival were followed for two consecutive years, during which one extreme drought event occurred. We analysed how grazing, watering and their combination affected nurse effects throughout the course of the study. Grazing and the drought event, but not watering, significantly altered the nurse effects. Under ungrazed conditions prior to the extreme drought event, nurse effects on sapling survival were neutral, whereas they were positive at rabbitgrazed plots. At low goat grazing, sapling growth was higher under nurse shrubs than in open microsites. However, after the extreme drought event, sapling survival was higher in open microsites at ungrazed plots, whereas at rabbit-grazed plots, nurse effects shifted from positive to neutral. Our findings highlight the importance of rabbit grazing in determining the direction of plant–plant interactions in arid ecosystems. Moreover, our findings support the idea that positive plant–plant interactions may wane under the combination of high grazing and drought stress.
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•Artemisia herba-alba Asso. is a medicinal plant and its essential oil is used in Algerian herbal medicine.•Toxicological effects of Artemisia herba-alba Asso. essential oil are ...herein reported for the first time.•Significant antibacterial effects against Klebsiella oxytoca and Acinetobacter baumannnii were observed.•Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis contributes to enrich the acknowledge about Artemisia herba-alba Asso.•Artemisia herba-alba Asso. essential oil major constituent is camphor.
Artemisia herba-alba Asso., known as the desert wormwood, is a medicinal plant and its essential oil is used in Algerian herbal medicine. In the present study the in vitro antibacterial activity against 21 bacterial strains and chemical composition of Artemisia herba-alba essential oil were investigated. The acute toxicity by determination of the median lethal dose was also studied. The results of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis of the essential oil gave 19 compounds accounting for 98.7% and the major constituent was camphor with an amount of 50.7%. A significant antibacterial effect was observed with important zones of inhibition against Klebsiella oxytoca (31.3 mm) by disc diffusion method and against Acinetobacter baumannnii (47.6 mm) by microatmoshphere method. The minimum inhibitory concentration and the minimum bactericidal concentration values were ranging from 5 to 10 mg mL−1 and 10–20 mg mL−1, respectively. Moreover, their ratio exhibited by the essential oil was 2. The bactericidal end point was achieved after 24 h of exposure to the essential oil, for all the bacteria assayed. The oil was slightly toxic with a median lethal dose of 615 mg kg−1. The results of this study suggest that the essential oil of Artemisia herba-alba can be a source of natural antibacterial agents with potential pharmacological applications.
The anti-proliferative effect of extracts from Ruta chalpensis L. (A), Artemisia herba-alba (B) and Peganum harmala L. (C). Display omitted
► A good biological activities (from A. herba-alba, R. ...chalpensis and P. harmala). ► Antioxidant capacity, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer activities were evaluated. ► A. herba-alba extract showed the highest inhibition rate of NO release (72% at 150mg/L). ► Tannins, flavonoids correlates to anti-inflammatory activity (0.95, 0.85 respectively). ► Correlations tannins/anticancer activity (0.94(Hep2), 0.99(RT112) and 0.95(K562)).
In this study, biological activities of methanolic extracts from Artemisia herba-alba, Ruta chalpensis L. and Peganum harmala L. plants, collected in Centre of Tunisia, were investigated. Results showed an important phenolic composition of Artemisia herba-alba (123.95±4.3g GAE/kg of dry mass). The extract of this plant showed, using different antioxidant assays (DPPH, ABTS and AAPH/linoleic acid methods) and an IFN-γ/LPS induced RAW 264.7 murine macrophages’ assay, the highest antioxidant (IC50 (DPPH assay) 20.64±0.84mg/L) and anti-inflammatory (72% inhibition at 150mg/L) activities, respectively. Excepting Peganum harmala L. extract, the two other extracts showed a high anticancer activity against several cell lines (human bladder carcinoma RT112, human laryngeal carcinoma Hep2 and human myelogenous leukemia K562), for A. herba-laba IC50=81.59±4.4, 59.05±3.66 and 90.96mg/L respectively, but not on normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells. All these biological activities are well correlated with the phenolic contents of these extracts. These findings demonstrate the remarkable potential of these plants as valuable source of antioxidants with exhibit original and interesting anti-inflammatory and anticancer capacities.
Kadri M, Yahia A, Goubi S, Mekhedmi NE, Selmane M, Chemsa AE. 2022. Chromatography analysis, in vitro antioxidant and antibacterial activities of essential oil of Artemisia herba-alba Asso of ...Boussaâda, Algeria. Biodiversitas 23: 4424-4431. Artemisia herba-alba Asso (Asteraceae family) is widespread in the semi-arid and arid steppes of North Africa. This plant is used for traditional treatment. The present study aims to investigate the chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of A. herba-alba essential oil found in southwest Algeria (Boussaâda region). Artemisia herba-alba essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation method, and its chemical composition was identified by using GC/MS analysis. In addition, the antioxidant activity of the extracted essential oil was determined using the DPPH assay. The antimicrobial activity of the essential oil was determined by the agar disc diffusion method. The essential oil extracted from the aboveground portions by hydrodistillation was analyzed by GC/MS. 38 components were identified, making up 69.37% of the oil, the most important of which is thujone (9.875%), camphor (3.762%), cis-p-menthadien-1-of (3.572%), and isoborneol (2.334%). The observed IC50 values of the DPPH assay were 7.31 ± 0.088 mg/mL. On the other hand, this oil was active against all strains tested, this activity varied from 12.77 ± 0.510 mm on Listeria innocua CIP 74915. These results demonstrate that the plant tested could be a potential source of natural antioxidants and antimicrobial agents.
The knowledge of the plants that are used may provide insight on their properties for further exploration. This study aimed to identify and collect data about medicinal plants used in traditional ...medicine by the population of the provincial region of Taza, Morocco. An ethnobotanical survey was carried out among 200 informants, competent villagers, herbalists, and traditional healers from the provincial region of Taza city through direct interviews using a structured questionnaire. The survey reported 55 plant species belonging to 28 families used in the folk medicine. Informants’ results showed that the most frequently used plants were Origanum compactum, Mentha pulegium, Rosmarinus officinalis L., Aloysia citrodora, Calamintha officinalis Moench, and Artemisia herba-alba Asso., with a relative frequency of citation of 76%, 72%, 60%, 42%, 40%, and 30%, respectively. Moreover, in this study, the Lamiaceae family was the most commonly reported plant family, and the leaves were the most frequently used parts of the plants; otherwise, decoction and infusion were the most used modes in the preparation of remedies from medicinal plants in the traditional medicine. The sociodemographic characteristics showed that women use medicinal plants slightly more than men, the illiterate people use the medicinal plant the most, and old people have more information about the medicinal plants than the new generations. The region of Taza of Morocco has an important floristic biodiversity of medicinal plants which are used in traditional medicine practice. This result provides a good database for pharmacological screening in the search for new plants that can contain new bioactive molecules that can be used as a bioactive ingredient of medicament or as a biological alternative in pharmacology.
The present study aimed to evaluate the antibacterial activity of the essential oil (EO) of Moroccan endemic
Thymus broussonnetii
alone, and in combination with EOs obtained from selected medicinal ...plants, namely
Myrtus communis
,
Artemisia herba alba
,
Thymus pallidus
,
Thymus satureioides
,
Teucrium polium,
and
Rosmarinus officinalis
. The synergistic interactions between the most effective combinations based on
T. broussonnetii
EO with two conventional antibiotics (streptomycin and ciprofloxacin) were also investigated.
T. broussonnetii
EO possessed a higher inhibitory activity against tested pathogenic bacteria with inhibition zone diameter (IZ) ranging from 21.61 ± 0.03 to 40.09 ± 0.02 mm, and MIC values between 0.140 mg/mL and 0.280 mg/mL.
M. communis
,
A. herba alba
,
T. pallidus
,
T. satureioides
,
T. polium,
and
R. officinalis
EOs showed moderate to weak antibacterial activity. Among tested EO mixtures, the highest synergistic antibacterial effect was recorded with the EO combination of
T. broussonnetii
and
T. pallidus
against
S. aureus
,
E. coli,
and
S. enterica
(FICI = 0.258). This EO combination was also the most effective mixture to synergistically enhance the antibacterial activity of the two antibiotics with up to a 128-fold increase, particularly against the gram-negative
E. coli
. These findings suggest that
T. broussonnetii
EO may be an interesting source of natural antimicrobials, for use in combination therapies with other plant EOs, and with conventional antimicrobial drugs to tackle the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria.
In this work, LC–ESI-TOF–MS and GC-EI-MS were used to assess the potential of Artemisia herba alba as a source of health-promoting constituents. Besides, the antioxidant, the antimicrobial and the ...cytotoxic potentials were evaluated. A total of 86 metabolites, including C-glycosylated and methylated flavones, quinic acid derivatives, coumarins, sesquiterpenes lactones, terpenoids, fatty acids, carbohydrates, organic acids and alkaloids were identified, sixty five of them were reported for the first time in A. herba alba. The main compounds were di-O-caffeoylquinic acids, artemisinic acid, menthol, α-ketoglutaric acid, scopolin, isoschaftoside and sucrose. Furthermore, results showed that A. herba alba possess high total antioxidant activity (Total antioxidant activity=423mg gallic acid equivalent/g dry weight), strong potential anticancer capacity against MCF-7 breast cancer and HeLa human cervical cell lines (IC50 of 15 and 70μg/ml, respectively), and moderate antibacterial activity against S. aureus, B. thurigiensis and A. hydrophila. These results support the use of this plant as alternative bioactive ingredient for functional foods, dietary supplements or nutraceuticals.
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•LC–ESI-TOF–MS and GC-EI-MS were adopted for the analysis of Artemisia herba alba.•86 metabolites including flavones, quinic acid derivatives, coumarins and terpenoids were identified and have antioxidant and potential anticancer effects.•herba alba metabolites have antioxidant and potential anticancer effects.
The focus of this roadmap is to evaluate the possible efficacy of
Asso. (Asteraceae) for the treatment of COVID-19 and some of its symptoms and several comorbidities using a combination of in silico ...(molecular docking) studies, reported ethnic uses, and pharmacological activity studies of this plant. In this exploratory study, we show that various phytochemicals from
can be useful against COVID-19 (in silico studies) and for its associated comorbidities. COVID-19 is a new disease, so reports of any therapeutic treatments against it (traditional or conventional) are scanty. On the other hand, we demonstrate, using
as an example, that through a proper search and identification of medicinal plant(s) and their phytochemicals identification using secondary data (published reports) on the plant's ethnic uses, phytochemical constituents, and pharmacological activities against COVID-19 comorbidities and symptoms coupled with the use of primary data obtained from in silico (molecular docking and molecular dynamics) studies on the binding of the selected plant's phytochemicals (such as: rutin, 4,5-di-
-caffeoylquinic acid, and schaftoside) with various vital components of SARS-CoV-2, it may be possible to rapidly identify plants that are suitable for further research regarding therapeutic use against COVID-19 and its associated symptoms and comorbidities.
Plant–plant interactions are among the fundamental processes that shape structure and functioning of arid and semi‐arid plant communities. Despite the large amount of studies that have assessed the ...relationship between plant–plant interactions (i.e., facilitation and competition) and diversity, often researchers forget a third kind of interaction, known as allelopathy. We examined the effect of plant–plant interactions of three dominant species: the perennial grass Lygeum spartum, the allelopathic dwarf shrub Artemisia herba‐alba, and the nurse shrub Salsola vermiculata, on plant diversity and species composition in a semi‐arid ecosystem in NE Spain. Specifically, we quantified the interaction outcome (IO) based on species co‐occurrence, we analyzed diversity by calculation of the individual species–area relationship (ISAR), and compositional changes by calculation of the Chao‐Jaccard similarity index. We found that S. vermiculata had more positive IO values than L. spartum, and A. herba‐alba had values between them. Lygeum spartum and A. herba‐alba acted as diversity repellers, whereas S. vermiculata acted as a diversity accumulator. As aridity increased, A. herba‐alba transitioned from diversity repeller to neutral and S. vermiculata transitioned from neutral to diversity accumulator, while L. spartum remained as diversity repeller. Artemisia herba‐alba had more perennial grass species in its local neighborhood than expected by the null model, suggesting some tolerance of this group to its “chemical neighbor”. Consequently, species that coexist with A. herba‐alba were very similar among different A. herba‐alba individuals. Our findings highlight the role of the nurse shrub S. vermiculata as ecosystem engineer, creating and maintaining patches of diversity, as well as the complex mechanism that an allelopathic plant may have on diversity and species assemblage. Further research is needed to determine the relative importance of allelopathy and competition in the overall interference of allelopathic plants.
We included an allelopathic species and its complex effects on diversity and species assemblage (which have been largely overlooked), in a study of the net effects of plant‐plant interactions in a multispecies semi‐arid ecosystem. Allelopathic plant had mostly negative interactions and acted as a biotic filter that reduced the pool of coexisting species.
blanche « Artemisia herba alba ». L'huile essentielle des parties aériennes de l’armoise blanche a été isolée par la méthode d'hydrodistillation. Différentes doses de cette huile ont été ajoutées à ...l’huile de tournesol. La stabilité de l’huile à l’oxydation a été évaluée après un traitement thermique à 180 °C/heure et pendant 15 jours de stockage à température ambiante en analysant l’indice de peroxyde, les diènes conjugués et les triènes conjugués. Les résultats obtenus ont montré que l’huile essentielle étudiée inhibe la formation de produits d’oxydation après le traitement thermique et pendant le stockage de l’huile de tournesol. Donc, d’après les résultats de cette recherche, l’huile essentielle de l’armoise blanche peut être utilisée pour augmenter la stabilité oxydative des huiles végétales.
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