Comparative Assessment of Phytochemical Characteristics and Functional Bioactivities in Artemisia Species

Identifying novel natural medicinal herbal therapies for inflammatory disorders and expanding the use of oncology have attracted more attention recently. The purpose of the current work was to examine some phytochemical components and antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antidiabetic activities in addition to phytotherapeutic applications of seven species of Artemisia that have received less attention from this perspective. Artemisia monosperma and Artemisia scoparia showed the weakest antimicrobial effects, exceeding 500 to 900 µg/mL, and Artemisia judaica showed the strongest bioactivity among the seven species, with the highest protein (25.96%) and essential oil (1.59%) content, yielding the lowest antimicrobial values against Candida albicans (31.07 µg/mL) and Listeria monocytogenes (32.08 µg/mL). A. judaica exhibited the best pharmacological profile with the highest phenolic (92.18 mg GAE/g) and flavonoid (55.36 mg QE/g) contents. This led to remarkable total antioxidant capacity (TAC) (77.96 mg AAE/g), anti-inflammatory as lipoxygenase (LOX) half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC 50 ) 44.3 µg/mL, and selective cytotoxic activities, which reduced colon cancer (HCT-116) viability to an astounding 12.44% while maintaining 97.32% survival in normal cells. In contrast to the strong α-glucosidase inhibition of A. judaica (55.3 µg/mL) and the potent α-amylase inhibition of A. scoparia (19.07 µg/mL), A. monosperma and Artemisia sieberi showed the weakest antidiabetic potential, with higher IC 50 values and comparatively lower enzyme inhibition. These results demonstrated the various therapeutic potential of these Artemisia species for the treatment of oxidative and metabolic disorders.