From longevity grass to contemporary soft gold: Explore the chemical constituents, pharmacology, and toxicology of Artemisia argyi H.Lév. & vaniot essential oil

Liu Y, He Y, Wang F, Xu R, Yang M, Ci Z, Wu Z, Zhang D, Lin J · Journal of Ethnopharmacology · 2021 October

DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2021.114404

Objective

Artemisia argyi H.Lév. & Vaniot is known as the longevity grass in eastern countries for its warm effect to cure many cold diseases. It has been widely used in medicine, food, bathing, moxibustion, and fumigation for more than two thousand years. In modern application, the Artemisia argyi H.Lév. & Vaniot essential oil (AAEO) is regarded as the important medicinal substance of A. argyi, and has been made into many health products, forming a large-scale A. argyi industry. This review aims to summarize the research status of AAEO and evaluate its application value. The manuscript focuses on the reported extraction methods, chemical components and influencing factors, pharmacological action, and toxicity.

Conclusions

Present review provides an insight into chemical composition, extraction method, quality influencing factors, pharmacological action and toxicological action of AAEO. As an important traditional medicine herb, remarkable efficacy has been demonstrated in comprehensive literature reports, which has shown the great medicinal potential of this plant. However, the toxicity of AAEO cannot be ignored, the exact mechanism of action remains to be elucidated.

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Insights

The essential oil from Ai Ye has shown significant anti-disease, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and anti-cancer effects.

The research methodology focused on conducting a thorough literature search using various databases including Google Scholar, Science Direct, PubMed, Elsevier, CNKI, and Wanfang. Key words utilised encompassed "Artemisia argyi H.Lév. & Vaniot essential oil," "Artemisia argyi H.Lév. & Vaniot," and names of various chemical components such as "cineole," "caryophyllene," "cyclamen," "borneol," and "camphor." The intention was to comprehensively collect, collate, and analyse data about this oil's extraction methods, chemical components, influenced factors, pharmacological action, and toxicity. The analysis of the compiled results revealed that over 200 types of chemical components have been identified in the Artemisia argyi H.Lév. & Vaniot essential oil, diverse in nature including terpenes, ketones, alcohols, acids, alkanes, hydrocarbons, among others. Reported outcomes have shared a wide range of medicinal benefits, from anti-disease and resistive properties against microorganisms, to anti-inflammatory effects, pain relief, and even anti-cancer potentials. The findings also imply a wider application and developmental potential for Artemisia argyi H.Lév. & Vaniot, albeit toxicity cannot be completely disregarded and the exact mechanism of action is yet to be explicitly defined.