COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THREE EXTRACTION PROCESSES OF SECONDARY METABOLITES FROM LEAVES AND STEMS OF ARTEMISIA ANNUA (Asteraceae)

Introduction: Artemisia annua (Asteraceae) is a plant widely used to treat diseases including malaria. Manipulation conditions and treatment of plant influence physico-chemical characteristics and composition, so that objective of this work was to examine extraction processes in order to identify the best process that leads to obtain extracts with optimal pharmacotechnical characteristics and phytochemical properties for drugs formulation. Methods: From raw powder resulting by spraying stems and leaves of Artemisia annua, 3 types of extracts were obtained; a dry infused, a dry hydro-ethanolic macerate and a freeze-dried infused. These different extracts were then characterized on physico-chemical, phyto-chemical and microbiological levels in order to compare them. Results: Freeze-dried infused exhibited the highest extraction yield followed by dry hydro-alcoholic macerate and dry infused with extraction percentages respectively of 11.7 ±0.3%, 8.4 ± 0.4% and 6.8 ± 0.3%. Powders tested were fine and had a diameter varying from 0-2.75 µm with a D 50