GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Phytochemistry, evolved from natural products chemistry, is confined to the study of products
elaborated by plants and has developed as a distinctive discipline between natural product
chemistry and plant biochemistry in recent years. It deals with the study of plant constituents,
chemical structure, their biosynthesis, metabolism, natural distribution and biological actions.
Approximately only less than 10 % of about 7.5 lakhs species of plants on earth have been
investigated indicates the opportunity provided and challenges thrown open to phytochemists.
The mission of the phytochemists is compounded in accomplishing the characterization and
identification of very small extent of the compounds isolable from plants. Phytochemistry also
enjoys the application of modem research for the scientific investigation of ancestral practical
knowledge. It has found large and varying use in about all fields of life and civilization. Its direct
association in the field of food and nutrition, agriculture, medicine and cosmetics is well-known
for years. Phytochemistry continues to raise and develop as a scientific discipline is the wider
and wider applications that are occurring in horticulture, agriculture and forestry (Harborne,
1988; Reinhold and Harborne, 1977; Ross and Brain, 1977; Van Beek and Breteler, 1993;
Wagner and Wolff, 1977).

Plants became primarily useful for mankind since their evolution. Awareness of the significance
of plants in the welfare of humanity encouraged their systematic study from different angles.
Thus various plant species have been subjected to detailed scientific analysis over the years.

India with its vast region from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and varying climatic and soil
conditions ranging born tropical to temperate has one of the world's richest vegetations,
comprising of about 1,30,000 species of plants belonging to 120 families to be appropriately
called the " Botanic Garden of the World". The Ayurvedic system of medicine is entirely of
Indian origin. More than 2400 medicinal plants have been known from Indian medicinal flora.
The remarkable properties and therapeutic uses of about 700 plant drugs have been recorded by
ancient Indian scholar Sushrutha, charaka and vagbhatta before 1000 B.C. Sanskrit literature
written by them contains information about morphological features of various medicinal plants.
The subject of plant chemistry of sophisticated instruments and techniques for isolation
and characterization of secondary metabolites of plants. The spectroscopic and analytical
techniques have resulted into quick identification and quantification of numerous kinds of natural
products from plants which have led to the discovery of new drugs. Isolation and
characterization of pharmacologically active components from medicinal plants is still the
interest of phytochemists. Recent advances in isolation, separation, purification and
characterization of natural products coupled with ethnobotanical studies have led to the
discovery of variousl novel drugs. For example, podophyllotoxin (10) from Podophyllum
peltatum, artemisinin (11) from Artemisia annua,
Artemisia, (genus Artemisia), any of a genus (Artemisia) of aromatic herbs and shrubs in
the Asteraceae family. Examples include wormwood, sagebrush, and tarragon. Many species are
valued as ornamentals for their attractive silvery gray foliage, which is frequently used in
horticultural plantings to create contrast or to smooth the transition between intense colors. The
leaves of common wormwood (A. absinthium) have been used in medicines and beverages such
as absinthe and vermouth. An extract from the Eurasian A. annua is used to treat quinine-
resistant malaria

SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION

Kingdom: Plantae

Clade: Angiosperms

Clade: Eudicots

Clade: Asterids

Order: Asterales

Family: Asteraceae

Subfamily: Asteroideae

Supertribe: Asterodae

Tribe: Anthemideae

Genus: Artemisia
Artemisia comprises hardy herbaceous plants and shrubs, which are known for the powerful
chemical constituents in their essential oils. Artemisia species grow in temperate climates of both
hemispheres, usually in dry or semiarid habitats. Notable species include A. vulgaris(common
mugwort), A. tridentata (big sagebrush), A. annua (sagewort), A. absinthium (wormwood), A.
dracunculus (tarragon), and A. abrotanum (southernwood). The leaves of many species are
covered with white hairs.

Most species have strong aromas and bitter tastes from terpenoids and sesquiterpene lactones,
which discourage herbivory, and may have had a selective advantage.[5] The small flowers
are wind-pollinated.[5] Artemisia species are used as food plants by the larvae of a number
of Lepidoptera species.

Culture
Artemisia has been mentioned and used in popular culture for centuries. A few examples are:

 Artemisia herba-alba is thought to be the plant translated as "wormwood" in English

language versions of the Bible (apsinthos in the Greek text). Wormwood is mentioned seven
times in the Jewish Bible, always with the implication of bitterness. It is mentioned once in
the New Testament.[14] Wormwood is the "name of the star" in the Book of Revelation
8:11 (kai to onoma tou asteros legetai ho Apsinthos) that John of Patmos envisions as cast by
the angel and falling into the waters, making them undrinkably bitter. Further references in
the Bible show wormwood was a common herb known for its bitter taste. (Deuteronomy
29:17, Proverbs 5:4, Jeremiah 9:15, 25:15, Lamentations 3:15,19, Amos 5:7)
 In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the titular character says "Wormwood, wormwood" to comment on the
bitter implications of what the Player Queen has just said