Artemisia annua L. A review of its ethnobotanical history, bioactive compounds beyond Artemisinin, and pharmacological potentials

Abstract

Background: Plants are known to be reservoir of primary and secondary metabolites. Because secondary metabolites are naturally occurring compounds with the potential to improve human health, they are extremely important. Artemisia annua L. is used in traditional medicine to cure a wide range of conditions, such as coughs, diarrhea, malaria, and many more. Crude extracts and pure compounds of Artemisia annua L. have been the focus of numerous pharmacological investigations because of its extensive applications in traditional medicine. Existing review focuses on the plant application to treat malaria. Our search for relevant literature has yielded no comprehensive review of evaluations of A. annua. The review aimed to compile and evaluate its traditional uses, diverse chemical constituents, and its scientifically proven biological activities of A. annua.

Methods: Data on the A. annua, characteristic chemical constituents and biological activities were retrieved from internationally recognized scientific databases and reputable journals through online platforms such as Web of Science, PubMed, MDPI, Springer Nature, Wiley Online Library, and Elsevier. The World Flora Online (WFO) database (https://www.worldfloraonline.org) was used to taxonomically identify A. annua.

Results: The species traditionally has been used to cure various diseases such as malaria, cough, diarrhea, HIV, cancer, and others. It contains 251 different compounds under the groups of sesquiterpene, monoterpene, phenol, flavonoid and others. Pharmacologically, it has been reported to have some strong antioxidants, antibacterial, antimalarial, antiparasitic, and anticancer properties.

Conclusions: This review highlights dozens of non-artemisinin compounds have been identified; most of the in vivo research still uses crude extracts or pure artemisinin. Future work must focus on linking specific compounds, such as the flavonoids artemetin and casticin, to the observed in vivo anti-inflammatory, antiparasitic effects, anticancer and other biological activities.

Keywords: Artemisinin, Anticancer, Cytotoxicity, Drug discovery, Phytochemistry