الفهرس 
Description and classification of Artemisia annua LOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
This study concluded that, El Sadat desert area and probably all the surrounding areas that shares the same environmental, geographical and ecological factors as a promising cultivation area for Artemisia annua with high artemisinin yield. This promising cultivation area may be used in a large scale in order to improve the supply of artemisinin at a reduced acceptable price. In this study we attempted to advise by: increasing the cultivating area of this important plant by cultivating A.annua plant in the western desert of Egypt to improve its agricultural yields in order to ensure a steady global supply of artemisinin and to study the environmental impact of the cultivation area on the amount of artemisinin production. The high artemisinin concentration reported in this study (2.95-3.20 %) of dry weight has identified the Egyptian desert for the first time as a new promising cultivating area for pharmaceutical production of artemisinin. A very simple method was developed using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LCMS/ MS) for the quantification of artemisinin in both plant material and pure samples. The highest range of artemisinin content obtained from A. annua harvested from different production areas in different countries is very wide and the highest content of artemisinin reached is up to 1– 2% expressed as dry weight of leaves of A. annua. In contrast the higher unexpected content of artemisinin that ranges between 2.95- 3.20% of dry plant weight in A. annua cultivated in this study area, have reported the Sadat desert to be one of the most promising area for the cultivation of Artemisia annua with high artemisinin content. The high unexpected content of artemisinin obtained from current study has extensively gained our attention to study the impact of various environmental, climatic and geographical factors of Sadat desert on artemisinin production and to compare them with those reported in the WHO monograph of Artemisia annua.
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5.1. Plant material The seeds of Artemisia annua L. were kindly provided from Sekem Herbal Company Egypt (Horizon Herbs, LLC). The plants were grown under controlled conditions at (ESRI) Environmental studies and research Institute University of Sadat City Farm at Sadat desert, Egypt. The plant was harvested just before flowering. This period is recommended to obtain a maximum extraction yield of artemisinin in the plant. 5.1.1. Processing Artemisia annua (Aerial parts) The collected plant materials were air-dried for two weeks and then powdered using mortar and pestle. The powder obtained was stored in air tight polythene bags for use in phytochemical analysis and determination of pharmacopoeia standards. 5.1.2. Preparation of methanolic extract to Artemisinin Dried powdered leaves of Artemisia annua L. (100 g) were extracted by continuous percolation over a period of four hours using 600 ml of methanol at 30 C°. The process of extraction was repeated four times using same solvent ratios. The combined extract was concentrated under vacuum (using Rotary Evaporator) to reduce the volume to 50 ml; volume was made up to 250 ml by adding dist-water to it. The resulting mixture was partitioned with 250-ml hexane three times. The combined hexane layer was reduced 5% of its original volume to result in dark green oily liquid. A 20% ethyl acetate was mixed to this liquid followed by treating this with 1% w/v activated charcoal. The liquid was filtered through a Whatman filter to remove the activated charcoal. After filtration the resulting dark yellow liquid was subjected to evaporative. The resulting white, needle shaped crystals were separated out using vacuum filtration device and weighed. The artemisinin crystals obtained were 320 mg.