Influence of Climatic Conditions on the Composition of Artemisia jacutica (Asteraceae) Essential Oil

Artemisia jacutica Drob. (Yakut wormwood) is a biennial plant endemic to Eastern Siberia. This species is distributed across the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and southern Central Siberia, colonizing salt meadows and grasslands, steppe areas, saline to sodic surface soil patches, abandoned agricultural lands, and ruderal habitats. The species is rather rare in Buryatia, due to the southeastern frontier of its area. The essential oil of the Yakut wormwood contains chamazulene as a principal compound component with an anti-inflammatory effect. The data generated within the survey and the published statistics indicate that the climatic conditions affect the formation of the essential oil component composition in plants, which is obviously appropriate to provide the best adaptation of the plants to their environmental growing conditions. Therefore, the effects of climatic conditions on the essential oil component composition in the Yakut wormwood plants result in the formation of two chemotypes known as Buryat and Yakut. It has been ascertained that the formation of these chemotypes occurs due to the differences between the rates of heat and moisture supply to the lands favorable for plant growth, expressed by the hydrothermal coefficient (HTC). The temperature–humidity extremeness parameters defining the coefficient based on annual data greatly affect the ratio of components in the essential oil. The climate-related factors (air temperature, precipitation, etc.) and their integrated potential can influence certain constituents and their proportions in the essential oil, affecting their variability.