Estrogenic Flavonoids from <i>Artemisia vulgaris</i> L.

Abstract

The comprehensive quantitative analysis of the flavonoid chemistry of Artemisia vulgaris L., a plant used as an emmenagogue in traditional medicine, is presented in conjunction with an evaluation of its estrogenic activity. Twenty known flavonoids were isolated and identified as tricine, jaceosidine, eupafolin, chrysoeriol, diosmetin, homoeriodictyol, isorhamnetin, apigenin, eriodictyol, luteolin, luteolin 7-glucoside, kaempferol 3-glucoside, kaempferol 7-glucoside, kaempferol 3-rhamnoside, kaempferol 3-rutinoside, quercetin 3-glucoside, quercetin 3-galactoside, quercetrin, rutin, and vitexin. The most abundant compounds were eriodictyol and luteolin. The estrogenic activity of all flavonoids was assayed by employing a reconstituted estrogen transcription unit in Saccharomyces cerevisiae transformed with both a human estrogen receptor expression plasmid and a reporter plasmid. Two flavonoids, eriodictyol and apigenin, were able to induce the transcription of the reporter gene in transgenic yeast. The transcriptional activity increased proportionally with increased amounts of purified eriodictyol or apigenin added to the yeast cells. Keywords: Artemisia vulgaris; estrogenic activity; estrogen transcriptional system in yeast; flavonoids; apigenin; eriodictyol; luteolin