Phytochemical Profiles and Antifungal Activity of Essential oil from Artemisia vulgaris Grown at Different Altitudes of Nepal

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the components of essential oil extracted from Artemisia vulgaris grown
at different altitudes and evaluate its antifungal activity.
Methods: Essential oils were extracted by using hydro distillation method. The essential oil analyses were
performed by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry technique. Principal component analysis (PCA) and
hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were used for the multivariate analyses. The antifungal activity of essential
oil was evaluated against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum by poisoned food technique. The collected data were entered
into Microsoft Excel 2019 program and variables were statistically analyzed using ANOVA with the help of R
studio.
Results: The highest essential oil yield percentage was observed in the plant samples collected from 1200 m
altitude with an average yield of 0.95± 0.14 v/w %. Altogether 73 components of essential oil were visualized.
Among these components Amorphene < gamma− > showed the highest peak area (10.58 %) in the plant samples
collected from 1800 m altitude. Similarly, Amorphene < gamma− > was present at highest concentration (10.35
%) in 1500 m, (11.88%) in 900 m, (13.85 %) in 600 m, and (10.46 %) in 300 m altitude plant samples. PCA analysis
gave rise to four different clusters and evaluation of HCA showed the amount closeness of components between the
plant samples collected from different altitudes. The extracted essential oils showed highest antifungal activity
against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum at 350 ppm (100 %) which was reduced with a decrease in the concentration of
essential oil.
Conclusion: The phytochemical profiles of the essential oil showed 73 components and the essential oil of
Artemisia vulgaris possessed antifungal activities against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum.