Bioactive Compounds from Artemisia campestris L. Subsp. Campestris

Artemisia campestris L. (field wormwood) is a known medicinal plant used mainly in Asian medicine and most often overlooked in the western world, despite its cosmopolitan distribution. The aim of this study was to investigate the phytochemical composition of A. campestris from Romanian spontaneous flora in order to determine the bioactive molecules and to assess the antioxidant effect of the plant extract. For this purpose, we applied LC-MS methods for the analysis of phytosterols and polyphenols and developed new methods for the analysis of methoxylated flavones and sesquiterpene lactones, specific compounds in Artemisia genus. The paper is the first to report the concentration of these compounds in the indigenous plant and also to identify some new compounds, previously not reported in this species, such as eupatorin, casticin, and acacetin. The plant extract showed significant antioxidant activity in both radical scavenging and reducing power assay, well correlated with the polyphenolic profile.