Chemical composition of the essential oil of Artemisia judaica L. from Algeria

The essential oil of Artemisia judaica L. growing spontaneously in In-Amenas in southern Algeria (desert region) was investigated by GC and GC-MS. Essential oil was isolated from the aerial parts by hydrodistillation in 0.70% yield. Sixty-two components were identified, amounting to 95.1% of the oil. The main components were piperitone (61.9%), terpinen-4-ol (4.6%) and bornyl acetate (3.0%). The geographical variation of the chemical composition of the volatile oil of Artemisia judaica between several sites in the world is discussed briefly. Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.