Abstract
In the flora of Kazakhstan there are many medicinal plants, of which the genus Artemisia (Asteraceae) includes 81 species. In the current study, chemical composition of essential oil from aerial parts of Artemisia austriaca Jacq. collected from different sites of Northern Kazakhstan was determined using GC-MS analysis. The chemical analysis demonstrated that the oil was dominated by oxygenated monoterpenes amounting to 39.49-59.20% with camphor (7.03-20.52%), 1,8-cineole (8.95-13.55%), α-thujone (3.16-25.78%) and β-thujone (0.87-9.92%) as major constituents. The results also suggested that there was difference in composition as well as amount among different sites depending on pH and organic matter of the soil. Further chemometric analysis using hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) of A. austriaca essential oil compositions from the published literature as well as the composition from present study were used in order to demonstrate geographical variations in the composition of the essential oils. It showed the existence of two main clusters: mixture of α- and β-thujones (32.5±21.6%) / 1,8-cineole (13.9±7.8%) (Cluster I) and camphor (40.5±17.4%) / 1,8-cineole (19.4±9.5%) (Cluster II).