Chemical composition, acute toxicity and antioxidant activities of Artemisia arborescens essential oils from the western Algeria

Abstract

The objective of this work is the study of the chemical composition, the acute toxicity and some biological activities of Artemisia arborescens essential oils (EOs), collected from two regions of Algeria (Sidi Bel Abbes and Bechar). The chemical composition of EOs were established by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography / mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The acute toxicity was assessed using Lorke's approach in Animal Models. The iron chelating effect was tested using ferozzin and lipid antiperoxidation was performed using β-carotene and linoleic acid. Forty-one compounds were identified, accounting for 96.0–98.8% of the total EO. The major chemical components characterizing the EOs were β-thujone, camphor and chamazulene, but the percentage of each compound varied depending on the EOs. The toxicity of Bechar’s EO was higher than Sidi bel abbes’s EO with LD₅₀ of 1264.91 and 2154.07 mg/kg respectively. The chelating effect of ferrous ions gave a result higher than 95% and the propagation of lipid peroxidation was inhibited with a percentage higher than 50% for both samples.