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The Genetics of Artemisinin Content in Artemisia annua L. and the Breeding of High Yielding Cultivars
Abstract
Artemisinin, the endoperoxide sesquiterpene lactone produced by the Chinese medicinal herb Artemisia annua, is very difficult to synthesise. Moreover, its production by mean of cell, tissue or organ cultures is very low. Presently, only its extraction from cultivated plants is viable. A large variation in artemisinin content has been observed in the leaves of plants from different origins. The genetic basis of this variation has been assessed and evidence for a quantitative inheritance of the artemisinin concentration presented. Additive genetic components were predominant, resulting in a high narrow-sense heritability estimate. Thus, goods results can be expected from mass selection for the breeding of lines of Artemisia annua rich in artemisinin. Yet, dominance variance is also present in the total genetic variability, indicating that crosses between selected genotypes should generate progenies with particularly high artemisinin content. As a matter of fact, selection and crossing, in wild populations, of genotypes with high artemisinin concentration resulted in hybrid lines containing up to 1.4 % artemisinin (on dry leaves basis).
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“Due to the heterozygous nature of A. annua , however, not all published plant lines are stable over generations; even the transgenic varieties developed in the same laboratory have varying artemisinin content (Delabays et al. 2001).”
From Enhancing artemisinin content in and delivery from Artemisia annua: a review of alternative, classical, and transgenic approaches (2021) · cites this paper as Delabays et al. 2001
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Items 101–176 of 176
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“For instance, the content of artemisinin in sweet wormwood ( Artemisia annua ) varies between 0.01 and 1.4% of dry weight (van Agtmael et al. 1999; Delabays et al. 2001; Abdin et al. 2003; Kumar et al. 2004; Feng et al. 2021).”
InfluentialNyoni, J., Madanzi, T., Midzi, J., Muziri, T., & Kapenzi, A. (2020) · American Journal of Plant Sciences · doi:10.4236/ajps.2020.114037 · Cited by 2
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InfluentialAaSnRK2.6 interacts with AaORA to positively regulate artemisinin biosynthesis in Artemisia annua
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“Unfortunately, Artemisia annua plants accumulate relatively low levels of artemisinin, typically ranging from 0.1% to 1% of leaf dr y weight [ 5], which poses a significant limitation on natural extraction yields.”
InfluentialNegri, S., Pietrolucci, F., Ramos, C., Venco, A., Carlessi, M., Franchetti, B., Commisso, M., Avesani, L., & Guzzo, F. (2026) · Acta Horticulturae · doi:10.17660/actahortic.2026.1462.2
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Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Delabays, N., Simonnet, X., & Gaudin, M.
- Venue
- Current Medicinal Chemistry
- Publisher
- Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.
- Published
- 2001-12-01
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 15
- Pages
- 1795-1801
- ISSN
- 0929-8673 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2134009021
- Cited by
- 178
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 1.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Current Medicinal Chemistry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Genetics and Plant Breeding
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Organic Chemistry › Sesquiterpenes and Asteraceae Studies
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock
- Keywords
- artemisinin, Artemisia annua, artemisinin content, polygenic inheritance, narrow-sense heritability, additive genetic variance, dominance variance, mass selection, plant breeding, high-yielding varieties, genetic variation, hybrid lines
- MeSH terms
- Antimalarials, Cloning, Molecular, Crosses, Genetic, Sesquiterpenes, Artemisia, Artemisinins
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