Antibacterial,antioxidant and antiproliferation activities of essential oils and ethanolic extracts from Chinese mugwort(Artemisia vulgaris L.)leaf in Shanxi

Background:Artemisia vulgaris,a medicinal aromatic plant,is widely used as a food item,tonic pharmaceutical,and cosmetic industry additive owing to its antibacterial,antihypertensive,hepatoprotective,antioxidant,and antispasmodic properties.But the effect of different geographic locations on the chemical composition and bioactivities of its extracts is unclear.Methods:Biological activities of essential oils and ethanol extracts of three varieties of Artemisia vulgaris leaves,which are grown in Shanxi province China,were studied.Results:Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis revealed that the main components of essential oils were terpenes and ketones.Essential oils and ethanol extract of Artemisia vulgaris leaves possessed good antioxidant activities,and their half maximal inhibitory concentrations determined using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl and 2,2’-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonate)assays were 57.0 and 22.9μg/mL,respectively.The essential oils also exhibited remarkable antibacterial activity against three foodborne pathogenic bacterial strains.The ethanol extract presented a high anticancer activity against the MGC-803 human gastric cancer cell line.Conclusion:These biological activities were well correlated with the composition of the extract and EOs,which in turn is affected by the genetic composition of Artemisia vulgaris and geographic location and diverse climatic condition under which it is grown.These findings demonstrate the remarkable potential of Artemisia vulgaris as a valuable source of antioxidant,antibacterial,and anticancer agents.

Feasible Fabrication of Hollow Micro-vesicles by Non-amphiphilic Macromolecules Based on Interfacial Cononsolvency

Herein we present a new perspective showing that water-soluble liquids,when added to water,undergo transient emulsification before complete dissolution.Thus,non-amphiphilic macromolecules can self-assemble at the two-miscible-phase interface when cononsolvent effect appears.A representative case shown here is that when poly(A/-isopropylacrylamide)(PNIPAm),prepared by aqueous radical polymerization,in methanol solution is added into water,the polymer chains rapidly self-assemble into hollow micro-vesicles based on the cononsolvency at water/methanol interface.This finding provides a subtle strategy to prepare hollow micro-vesicles by non-amphiphilic polymers without template participating.We proposed a new concept^interfacial cononsolvencyw to describe the formation process.Due to the easy modification process,sugar-contained PNIPAm chains are synthesized by copolymerization.As an application example,it is shown that these sugar-contained PNIPAm chains can afford MsweetH micro-vesicles(containing glucose residues).And the"sweer"micro-vesicles can well mimick the protocells which are involved in the recognition of bacteria.