Resumo

ACOSTA DE LA LUZ, Lérida; HECHEVARRIA SOSA, Isabel  e  RODRIGUEZ FERRADA, Carlos. Influence of growing conditions and of the optimal harvesting time on Artemisia annua L.. Rev Cubana Plant Med [online]. 2011, vol.16, n.1, pp. 105-114. ISSN 1028-4796.

Introduction: Artemisia annua L. is medicinal plant of great interest, and therefore it is important to specify exactly the agricultural elements supporting its proper growing. Objectives: to determine the influence of growing this plant in the sun and in the shade and of harvesting at different hours and plant ages in the production of biomass and active principles. Methods: flowerbeds were placed in the sun and in dimmed light conditions in order to study the growing conditions. In the research conducted at the time of harvest, plants grown in the sun, of 6 months of age and at various day hours: 9:00 a.m. at 26 ºC; 11:00 a.m. at 30 ºC; 1:00 p.m. at 32 ºC, and 3:00 p.m. at 33 ºC were harvested. In the other experiment, the harvest of the aerial parts of the plants coming from seedbeds created on November 5^th and on December 8^th and aged 5, 6 and 7 months was evaluated. The production of biomass, the content of artemisinin and additionally that of the essential oil and camphor were assessed. The extraction of the essential oil using hydrodistillation and that of artemisinin and the camphor by gas chromatography, the detection of the these two components was made by thin-layer chromatography and also the pharmacognostic parameters such as water- and alcohol-soluble substances were evaluated. Results: there were little differences in aerial parts yielding in the two growing methods but there was high content of artemisinin, essential oil and camphor in plants grown in the sun. The better time interval for harvest is the morning, when there are higher values of essential oil; regarding harvesting age the 6 month was the most convenient since there was higher proportion of branches and leaves and less old stems, with little differences among the dates of growing and the highest percentages of essential oil and soluble substances. Conclusions: the results obtained allow recommending that the plant be grown in the sun at the beginning of the November-December period and be harvested after 9:00 a.m. till 1:00 p.m. and at 6 months of age.

Palavras-chave : Artemisia annua; growing in the sun and in dimmed light; harvesting hours; harvesting age; biomass production; essential oil content; artemisinin; camphor.

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