Resource potential and essential oil composition of Artemisia arenaria DC. in the Northern Aral Sea Region

Background Communities dominated by Artemisia arenaria DC. are widely distributed in the sandy massifs of northern deserts of the Turan lowland, where they perform landscape-forming, relief-stabilising functions. Despite its ecological importance, A. arenaria remains insufficiently studied in Kazakhstan, in particular with regard to its phytochemical properties and raw material reserves in the Northern Aral Sea region. Therefore, this study focuses on the preliminary assessment of the resource potential and essential oil composition of the aboveground parts of A. arenaria in this region. Methods Classical geobotanical methods were used to describe each site and its resource objects. The yield was determined using two basic methods: clipping and model bushes. Based on the obtained yield data, the operational stock and the volume of possible annual processed air-dried raw material were calculated, taking into account a four-year recovery period. Essential oil was isolated from the air-dried aerial parts of A. arenaria by hydrodistillation. The chemical composition of the essential oil was analysed using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Results and Conclusion The assessment of A. arenaria resource potential in the Northern Aral Sea region identified five thickets, covering an area of 51.8 ha. In these thickets, total operational stock was 13.06 tons of air-dried raw materials with a possible annual processed volume of 2.61 tons. GC-MS analysis of A. arenaria essential oil from aerial parts identified 105 compounds with mass spectral matches ≥ 85%. The oil was dominated by 18 compounds (approximately 70% of the total), with pseudolimonene (12.6%), α-bisabolol (11.77%), geranyl acetate (7.74%), and 3-carene (6.5%) as the major constituents. Several components detected in this study, including geranyl acetate, have not previously been reported for this species in the available literature. These findings expand current knowledge of the chemical composition of A. arenaria and may contribute to future investigations of its chemotypic variability and potential biological properties.