Costituenti volatili dell’Artemisia annua in piante wild type e in piante ibride ad alto contenuto di artemisinina

We have recently reported the establishment of an easy and reliable method for the in vitro micro-propagation of A. annua cv. Anamed (A3) [1] and for the evaluation of the content of the sesquiterpenoid lactone artemisinin [2], a well known antimalarial drug [3]. Here we show the pattern of the volatile constituents of wild types (A. annua L.) from two different botanical gardens, and of two hybrids (A. annua Anamed cv. A3 distributed in Africa by the NGO Action for Natural Medicine [4] and A. annua cv. Artemis F2 developed by Mediplant [CH]), characterized by a high content of artemisinin -which could be considered as a non volatile compound-, We are also suggesting that the biosynthetic pathway of artemisinin proceeds at the expense of other terpenes like artemisia ketone, which is the characteristic volatile compound present in the wild type plant but not found in both hybrids.