Abstract
The present study was performed to investigate the antioxidant and cytotoxic activity, as well the phytochemical constituents of two species of the Astraceae family. The percentage yield of total and successive extracts was determined and showed that the total extract were (14.75 % and 21.36 %) for Artemesia monosperma and Artemesia herba alba respectively, while the highest percent of the successive extracts were methanol 50 % (10.39 %) in Artemesia monosperma, while petroleum ether (12.20 %) in Artemesia herba alba. The preliminary phytochemical screening showed that the two plant contained carbohydrates and/or glycosides, proteins, amino acids flavonoids, saponins, tannins, unsaturated sterols and/or terpenoids and absence of alkaloids. Investigation of the antioxidant activity proved that the most active extracts of the two plants were the ethyl acetate one with IC50 (28.59 and 37.15 mu g/ml),respectively. These extracts showed inhibition of the human colon (HCT) carcinoma cell lines. The TLC finger print of the ethyl acetate extracts showed that Artemesia monosperma contained 10 spots while, Artemesia herba alba contained 16 spots, mainly flavonoid compounds.