Photoperiod effect on the growth and artemisinin content of Artemisia Annua grown in tropical region

Abstract

Artemisia annua is medicinal plant species producing artemisinin, the bioactive compound used as antimalaria. This plant is native to China and North Asia and has been introduced to Indonesia since the 1990s. Due to the low content of artemisinin in Artemisia annua which are grown in the tropical region, great efforts have been devoted to improving artemisinin production. The research has been carried out to improve the growth, yield and artemisinin content by manipulated of photoperiod during the cultivation. Each of 100 individual plants is grown in the greenhouse for treatment of photoperiod and in the field for neutral daylight. The photoperiodicity manipulation was used the LED lamp within the greenhouse with the time duration of 16 h. The growth of Artemisia was monitor during the experiment, and biomass production was recorded after harvested time as well as the artemisinin and volatile oil content. The result of the research shows that photoperiod manipulation during the vegetative growth of Artemisia annua affects strongly on the growth, yield and artemisinin content. The 16 h of light was able to increase the yield of dry matter of Artemisia annua 20 % more compared to the neutral daylight. Further, the artemisinin content also increased significantly by the treatment of 16 h of light.