Variation in the volatile constituents of Artemisia annua var. CIM-Arogya during plant ontogeny.

The essential oils yield and composition of the aerial parts of A. annua var. CIM-Arogya grown in Uttarakhand, India were analyzed and compared by capillary GC and GC-MS at different stages of development. The analysis led to the identification of 81 constituents forming 91.0%-97.1% of the essential oils compositions. The essential oil content of the aerial parts was found to vary from 0.3% to 0.7% at different stages of growth. A. annua crop harvested at full flowering and seed setting stage gave higher yield of essential oil (0.6%, 0.7%) than that harvested at pre flowering (0.5%), late vegetative (0.4%, 0.5%), mid vegetative (0.4%, 0.4%) and early vegetative stages (0.3%, 0.3%). The essential oils at different stages of growth showed monoterpenoids (38.5%-72.0%) and sesquiterpenoids (22.2%-48.2%) as major grouped constituents. The major constituents identified were camphor (22.8%-42.6%), 1,8-cineole (3.7%-8.4%), linalool (<0.1%-11.9%), beta-caryophyllene (2.0%-9.2%), (E)-beta-farnesene (1.3%-8.5%), germacrene D (0.5%-7.3%) and 1-epi-cubenol (0.7%-5.2%) in essential oil samples collected at different crop stages.