Antioxidant Activity of Phenolic and Alkaloid Fractions Accumulated in Artemisia judaica and Artemisia herba alba

Genus Artemisia are desert plants spread in the Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The methanol extract of the aerial parts of Artemisia herba alba and Artemisia judaica grown in the arid zones in the Northern regions of Saudi Arabia and North Sinai, in Egypt were subjected to the primary phytochemical analysis which, showed the presence of phenolic compounds, flavonoids, tannins and sterols. The GC-MS analysis of the methanolic extract exhibited numerous compounds, 11 compounds were identified as phenolic compounds, ferulic acid, ursodeoxycholic acid and derivatives of cinnamic acid (ethyl cinnamate). The highest phenolics content in A.herba alba grown in Saudi Arabia was observed for methyl cinnamate, (8.2 %) and the lowest methyl ferulate (0.02 %) for A. judica grown in Egypt. The quantization analysis of GC-MS revealed high amount of phenolic acid in the plant grow in Saudi Arabia than the plant collected from Egypt. The radical scavenging activities of two plant were studied by 1,1-diphenyl -2-pycrylhydrazyl (DPPH), EC (50) values were determined for A.herba alba and A. judaica (0.122, and 0.56 mg/ml) growing in Saudi Arabia and A.herba alba and A. judaica (1.7 and 0. 67 mg/ml ) growing in Egypt. Total alkaloid content was analysed and some alkaloid compounds was identified by GC-MS, viz. dasycarpidan-1-methanol, acetate, pseudosolasodine diacetate and morphinan4,5epoxy3,6-diol. Certain compounds were rich in Saudi plant but not detected in plants grown in Egypt, which reflect the role of environment adaptation of plant by accumulation of only certain compounds.