Field drying of Artemisia annua L.: increasing artemisinin content and lowering production costs

• Published in: Revue suisse de viticulture, arboriculture, horticulture Vol. 33; no. 5
• Main Authors: Simonnet, X, Gaudin, M, Hausammann, H, Vergeres, Ch. (Station federale de recherches en production vegetale de Changins (RAC), Conthey (Switzerland). Centre d'arboriculture et d'horticulture des Fougeres.)
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: French
• Published: 01.09.2001
• Subjects: ARTEMISIA ANNUA; ARTEMISININ; ARTEMISININA; ARTEMISININE; BIOSINTESIS; BIOSYNTHESE; BIOSYNTHESIS; COSTOS DE PRODUCCION; COUT DE PRODUCTION; DRUG PLANTS; DRYING; EXPERIMENTACION EN CAMPO; EXPERIMENTATION AU CHAMP; FIELD EXPERIMENTATION; MALARIA; METABOLITE SECONDAIRE; METABOLITOS SECUNDARIOS; PLANTAS MEDICINALES; PLANTE MEDICINALE; PRODUCTION COSTS; SECADO; SECHAGE; SECONDARY METABOLITES
• ISSN: 0375-1430

Artemisinin, a sesquiterpenic lactone extracted from the leaves of Artemisia annua, arouses much interest because of its powerful antimalarial properties. There is currently no economic alternative but extracting from cultivated high grade cultivars. Cropping techniques should be optimized so as to reduce production costs. Yields of more than 30 t/ha have to be dried to 12/, which means evaporating about 18 t of water (60/ of the fresh weight): drying is an important technical and economical challenge. Trials under our climatic conditions made it clear that wilting on the field during one week had no detrimental effect on ingredient yield, since artemisinin content rises while yield potential decreases following loss of leaves. The rise in artemisinin content (/d.m.) is as high as 1/3 over 4 weeks drying. This finding opens interesting prospects for research about biosynthesis of artemisinin and other secondary metabolites.