Abstract
California mugwort (Artemisia douglasiana Besser) is a plant found in the western regions of North America. Known by many Native Californian communities for its anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties, the leaves of A. douglasiana are brewed as a tea to treat various pain symptoms, upper respiratory ailments, and for women’s medicine. When ingested in large doses, the leaves induce labor and correct dysmenorrhea. More recently, ethanol extracts (tinctures) of mugwort leaves have also been used by non-Native peoples to treat those same ailments. An analysis of the safety of mugwort use is important since it is widely used as an alternative medicine, often without the advice of a healer or herbalist. Previous studies showed via EC50 value analysis that ethanolic extracts were more cytotoxic towards two breast cancer cell lines and normal human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (hPBMC) than aqueous extracts. Given this information, the current study partially isolated and tentatively identified cytotoxic candidates within the leaves of A. douglasiana leaves. First, several organic extracts were tested, with ethyl acetate extracts being the most cytotoxic. Bioassay guided fractionation, including two rounds of flash column chromatography, was performed. The MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line was used for cytotoxicity assays. Promising leads were analyzed via gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, however the solutions were not able to be completely purified. Candidate cytotoxic compounds were tentatively identified via comparison of mass spectra with the NIST MS library.