cytotoxic activity and phytochemical analysis of artemisia biennis essential oils at different growth stages

Background: the artemisia genus is well-known for its medicinal properties, particularly in iranian traditional medicine. artemisia biennis, a species within this genus, is widely distributed across iranian rangelands.objectives: this study aimed to evaluate the cytotoxic activity and chemical composition of essential oils (eo) isolated from the aerial parts of a. biennis in iran at different growth stages. methods: the aerial parts of a. biennis from northeast iran were collected during june (early vegetative stage), july (pre-flowering stage), august (full-flowering stage), and october (late vegetative stage). the essential oils (eos) of the a. biennis species were extracted by hydro-distillation using a clevenger-type apparatus and analyzed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (gc/ms). the cytotoxic activity of the eos against normal fibroblasts, mcf-7, and ht-29 cell lines was evaluated using the mtt assay. results: data from gc/ms analysis revealed that (z)-nerolidol (22.62 - 54.4%), (e)-β-farnesene (6.89-16.38%), and (z)-tonghaosu (12.33 - 18.61%) were the most abundant chemical constituents. the essential oil (eo) of a. biennis was characterized by a high content of oxygenated sesquiterpenes, with (z)-nerolidol being the main constituent identified. based on the mtt assay, the eo of the plant species collected in june exhibited the most potent cytotoxicity against mcf-7 (ic50 = 2.84 ± 0.15 µg/ml) and ht-29 cell lines (ic50 = 2.41 ± 0.2 µg/ml). conclusions: the growth stage of a. biennis affects eo yields, the composition of extracted secondary metabolites, and cytotoxic activity. a. biennis eos can be considered potential sources of cytotoxic phytochemicals.