They exhibit a great ability to grow on different ecosystems from the sea level to the mountains and from arid areas to wet regions, but the majority of the species live on temperate zones.
The Artemisia species are herbs and shrubs, which could be perennial, biennial and annual plants, distributed on all continents except Antarctica, mainly on Northern Hemisphere, with only 25 species on the Southern Hemisphere, being the Asian the zone where higher species diversity is concentrated. In the remaining citations, the genre name is abbreviated to A. In this review, the complete accepted Latin botanical name, according to the “The Plant List” database, is presented in the first species citation, with an indication of any synonym when the latter is the one mentioned in the original publication. Despite all the benefits demonstrated, some gaps need to be filled, mainly related to the use of raw Artemisia extracts, such as its standardization and clinical trials on adverse effects and its health care efficacy.Īrtemisia genus (Asteraceae family) comprise more than 2290 plant name records in the “The Plant List” database, being only 530 of these taxa with accepted Latin botanical name, which shows how challenging the taxonomy of this genus is. From an integrated perspective, as it includes therapeutic and nutritional properties, without ignoring some adverse effects described in the literature, this review shows the great potential of Artemisia plants and some of their constituents as dietary supplements, functional foods and as the source of new, more efficient, and safe medicines. The analysis of more than 300 selected articles highlights the beneficial effect on health and the high clinical relevance of several Artemisia species besides some sesquiterpene lactones constituents and their derivatives.
In this review, the most recent evidence on health effects of edible Artemisia species and some of its constituents are presented and discussed, based on studies published until 2020, available in the Scopus, Web of Sciences and PubMed databases, related to food applications, nutritional and sesquiterpene lactones composition, and their therapeutic effects supported by in vivo and clinical studies. The genus Artemisia, often known collectively as “wormwood”, has aroused great interest in the scientific community, pharmaceutical and food industries, generating many studies on the most varied aspects of these plants.
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