Constituents of Artemisia indica Willd. from Uttarakhand Himalaya: A source of davanone

BACKGROUND: The genus Artemisia is important due to its medicinal properties as well as vital aroma compounds of commercial value. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to explore the potential of the essential oil of Artemisia indica wildly growing in Uttarakhand. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The aerial parts of Artemisia indica Willd. (Asteraceae), collected from wild growing habitat of Garhwal Himalaya, Uttarakhand (north of India) at full flowering stage were hydro-distilled and gave pale yellow oil with the yield of 0.8% (v/w). The obtained essential oil was analyzed by GC and GC-MS and identified 32 components, amounting 95.42% of the oil. RESULTS: Among detected compounds, the principal component was found to be davanone (30.80%), followed by β-pinene (15.30%) and germacrene-D (5.82%). CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on A. indica from Himalayan region of India, which detected davanone as major component. The species, collected from a specific location, can be explored for isolation of davanone for its industrial utilization and as alternate source of Artemisia pallens, which have already established commercial value.