From longevity grass to contemporary soft gold: Explore the chemical constituents, pharmacology, and toxicology of Artemisia argyi H.Lév. & vaniot essential oil

Artemisia argyi H.Lév. & Vaniot is known as the longevity grass in eastern countries for its warm effect to cure many cold diseases. It has been widely used in medicine, food, bathing, moxibustion, and fumigation for more than two thousand years. Nowadays it even becomes the cultural symbol of the Dragon Boat Festival. In traditional application, A. argyi is considered to be an important hemostatic drug and a common drug for gynecological diseases. In modern application, the Artemisia argyi H.Lév. & Vaniot essential oil (AAEO) is regarded as the important medicinal substance of A. argyi, and has been made into many health products, forming a large-scale A. argyi industry.This review aims to summarize the research status of AAEO and evaluate its application value. The manuscript focuses on the reported extraction methods, chemical components and influencing factors, pharmacological action, and toxicity.In the literature search, several databases, such as Google Scholar, Science Direct, PubMed, Elsevier, CNKI, and Wanfang, were searched for key words, including “Artemisia argyi H.Lév. & Vaniot essential oil,” “Artemisia argyi H.Lév. & Vaniot,” “cineole,” “caryophyllene,” “cyclamen,” “borneol,” and “camphor.”At present, more than 200 kinds of chemical components have been detected in AAEO, including terpenes, ketones (aldehydes), alcohols (phenols), acids (esters), alkanes (olefins) hydrocarbons, and so on. It has great anti-disease-resistant microorganism, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and anti-cancer effects in clinical treatment and has good development potential and application prospects.Present review provides an insight into chemical composition, extraction method, quality influencing factors, pharmacological action and toxicological action of AAEO. As an important traditional medicine herb, remarkable efficacy has been demonstrated in comprehensive literature reports, which has shown the great medicinal potential of this plant. However, the toxicity of AAEO cannot be ignored, the exact mechanism of action remains to be elucidated.