The genus Artemisia, often known collectively as “wormwood”, has aroused great interest in the scientific community, pharmaceutical and food industries, generating many studies on the most varied aspects of these plants. In this review, the most recent evidence on health effects of edible Artemisia species and some of its constituents are presented and discussed, based on studies published until 2020, available in the Scopus, Web of Sciences and PubMed databases, related to food applications, nutritional and sesquiterpene lactones composition, and their therapeutic effects supported by in vivo and clinical studies. The analysis of more than 300 selected articles highlights the beneficial effect on health and the high clinical relevance of several Artemisia species besides some sesquiterpene lactones constituents and their derivatives. From an integrated perspective, as it includes therapeutic and nutritional properties, without ignoring some adverse effects described in the literature, this review shows the great potential of Artemisia plants and some of their constituents as dietary supplements, functional foods and as the source of new, more efficient, and safe medicines. Despite all the benefits demonstrated, some gaps need to be filled, mainly related to the use of raw Artemisia extracts, such as its standardization and clinical trials on adverse effects and its health care efficacy.

Dry rose extract (DRE) obtained industrially by aqueous ethanol extraction from R. damascena flowers and its phenolic-enriched fraction, obtained by re-extraction with ethyl acetate (EAE) were the subject of this study. ¹H NMR of DRE allowed the identification and quantitation of fructose and glucose, while the combined use of HPLC-DAD-ESIMS and HPLC-HRMS showed the presence of 14 kaempferol glycosides, 12 quercetin glycosides, 4 phenolic acids and their esters, 4 galloyl glycosides, 7 ellagitannins, and quinic acid. In addition, the structures of 13 of the flavonoid glycosides were further confirmed by NMR. EAE was found to be richer in TPC and TFC and showed better antioxidant activity (DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP) compared to DRE. Both extracts displayed significant activity against Propionibacterium acnes, Staphylococcus aureus, and S. epidermidis, but showed no activity against Candida albicans. Toxicity tests on normal human skin fibroblasts revealed low toxicity for both extracts with stronger effects observed at 24 hours of treatment that were compensated for over the following two days. Human hepatocarcinoma (HepG2) cells exhibited an opposite response after treatment with a concentration above 350 µg/mL for EAE and 500 µg/mL for DRE, showing increased toxicity after the third day of treatment. Lower concentrations were non-toxic and did not significantly affect the cell cycle parameters of either of the cell lines.

This work deals with ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) of alantolactone and isoalantolactone from the roots of Inula helenium L., a well-known medicinal plant. The effects of ethanol concentration, extraction time, temperature and number of extraction steps on the extraction yields of both sesquiterpene lactones were investigated. Gas chromatographic (GC) method was used for simultaneous determination of their contents in the corresponding extracts. A comparison with classical extraction methods [maceration, infusion and micro steam distillation-extraction (MSDE)] showed that the amounts of alantolactone and isoalantolactone achieved by UAE with 70 and 96% EtOH for 30 min at room temperature were higher or almost equal to those obtained by maceration for 24 hours.