Abstract
Essential oils and their components are becoming increasingly popular as naturally occurring antioxidant agents. In this work, the composition of essential oil in Artemisia herba-alba from southwest Tunisia, obtained by hydrodistillation was determined by GC/MS. Eighteen compounds were identified with the main constituents namely, alpha-thujone (24.88%), germacrene D (14.48%), camphor (10.81%), 1,8-cineole (8.91%) and beta-thujone (8.32%). The oil was screened for its antioxidant activity with 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, beta-carotene bleaching and reducing power assays. The essential oil of A. herba-alba exhibited a good antioxidant activity with all assays with dose dependent manner and can be attributed to its presence in the oil.