TY - JOUR

T1 - A phylogenetic road map to antimalarial Artemisia species

AU - Pellicer, Jaume

AU - Saslis Lagoudakis, Haris

AU - Carrió, Esperança

AU - Ernst, Madeleine

AU - Garnatje, Teresa

AU - Grace, Olwen M

AU - Gras, Airy

AU - Mumbrú, Màrius

AU - Vallès, Joan

AU - Vitales, Daniel

AU - Rønsted, Nina

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - Ethnopharmacological relevance: The discovery of the antimalarial agent artemisinin is considered one of the most significant success stories of ethnopharmacological research in recent times. The isolation of artemisinin was inspired by the use of Artemisia annua in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2015. Antimalarial activity has since been demonstrated for a range of other Artemisia species, suggesting that the genus could provide alternative sources of antimalarial treatments. Given the stunning diversity of the genus (c. 500 species), a prioritisation of taxa to be investigated for their likely antimalarial properties is required. Materials and methods: Here we use a phylogenetic approach to explore the potential for identifying species more likely to possess antimalarial properties. Ethnobotanical data from literature reports is recorded for 117 species. Subsequent phylogenetically informed analysis was used to identify lineages in which there is an overrepresentation of species used to treat malarial symptoms, and which could therefore be high priority for further investigation of antimalarial activity.Results: We show that these lineages indeed include several species with documented antimalarial activity. To further inform our approach, we use LC MS/MS analysis to explore artemisinin content in fifteen species from both highlighted and not highlighted lineages. We detected artemisinin in nine species, in eight of them for the first time, doubling the number of Artemisia taxa known to content this molecule.Conclusions: Our findings indicate that artemisinin may be widespread across the genus, providing an accessible local resource outside the distribution area of Artemisia annua.

AB - Ethnopharmacological relevance: The discovery of the antimalarial agent artemisinin is considered one of the most significant success stories of ethnopharmacological research in recent times. The isolation of artemisinin was inspired by the use of Artemisia annua in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2015. Antimalarial activity has since been demonstrated for a range of other Artemisia species, suggesting that the genus could provide alternative sources of antimalarial treatments. Given the stunning diversity of the genus (c. 500 species), a prioritisation of taxa to be investigated for their likely antimalarial properties is required. Materials and methods: Here we use a phylogenetic approach to explore the potential for identifying species more likely to possess antimalarial properties. Ethnobotanical data from literature reports is recorded for 117 species. Subsequent phylogenetically informed analysis was used to identify lineages in which there is an overrepresentation of species used to treat malarial symptoms, and which could therefore be high priority for further investigation of antimalarial activity.Results: We show that these lineages indeed include several species with documented antimalarial activity. To further inform our approach, we use LC MS/MS analysis to explore artemisinin content in fifteen species from both highlighted and not highlighted lineages. We detected artemisinin in nine species, in eight of them for the first time, doubling the number of Artemisia taxa known to content this molecule.Conclusions: Our findings indicate that artemisinin may be widespread across the genus, providing an accessible local resource outside the distribution area of Artemisia annua.

U2 - 10.1016/j.jep.2018.06.030

DO - 10.1016/j.jep.2018.06.030

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 29936053

VL - 225

SP - 1

EP - 9

JO - Journal of Ethnopharmacology

JF - Journal of Ethnopharmacology

SN - 0378-8741

ER -