New trends in extraction, identification and quantification of artemisininand its derivatives

Artemisinin, a sesquiterpene lactone endoperoxide, and a number of its prec ursors, metabolites and semisynthetic derivatives have shown to possess ant imalarial properties. Several methods have been reported for the measuremen t of artemisinin and its main derivatives in plant material and biological fluids. However, most of them are either not sufficiently sensitive and do not offer reliable results, or are difficult to apply in routine analyses. Therefore, new methods for the determination of these compounds, such as su percritical fluid extraction and chromatography, pressurized solvent extrac tion, extraction, high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass sp ectrometry scattering detection, will be presented. Applications to plant m aterial, pharmaceutic biological fluids will also be reviewed.