Artemisia Annua Root Pharmacognosy

China is universally acknowledged to be a big country with rich natural resources of medicinal plants and a long history of cancer treatment. Chinese herbal medicine that used in anti-tumor has obvious advantages. Southernwood-root has appeared in the anticancer prescription. The Ancient Medical Books and folk prescription also use it for a variety of diseases, there are even folk cases of treatment for lung cancer and other cancers. However, southernwood-root is seldom reported in the modern research, which only recognized in folk use. This article first use herbal medicine, Chinese medicine identification of science, medicine chemistry, medicine pharmacology, pathology, and other multi-disciplinary approach to study southernwood-root, and has done a more systematic Pharmacognosy study on the southernwood species issues, the identification of herbs, The main chemical composition and anti-tumor effect. This text aims to inherit and carry forward China's ancient prescription, excavation folk medicinal resources, and explore the anticancer value of southernwood-root, promote comprehensive utilization and sustainable development of Artemisia annua resources, provide a scientific basis to expand the use of traditional Chinese medicine resources and development new anticancer drugs.(1)The research results of herbal history, medical investigation and folk administration show that: Southernwood-root mentioned since the Ming Dynasty is derived from the root of Artemisia apiacea and Artemisia annua. Because the authentic source of southernwood is Artemisia annua which has been massively planted Nationwide, people now use the root of Artemisia annua as southernwood-root. Therefore, we lock the study object on Artemisia annua roots.(2) Through the resources research, we found a wide distribution of Artemisia annua, and it has no obvious genuine requirements. It is wild before, but now widely planted throughout the country. So it has great advantages in resources and is worth excavation. Through the research of shapes and microscopic characteristics, we sum up the characteristics and microscopic characteristics of southernwood-root powder to provide a basis for identification.(3) In the chemical composition of the qualitative and quantitative research, the paper has done a more comprehensive pre-test by pre-trial system to its chemical components. Using the method of comparing different kinds of medicinal plant site that is the root of Artemisia annua (southernwood-root) and the aerial part of the Artemisia annua (southernwood), we have done the TLC study of the volatile oil, flavonoids, coumarin and other major chemical constituents in southernwood; for the first time established the TLC method of volatile oil, Kaempferol and Scopoletin. Using UV spectrophotometry and high-performance liquid chromatography methods, the quantitative analysis on the southernwood-root of volatile oil, flavonoids and coumarins has been done, by which the determination method of total flavonoids, total coumarin, Kaempferol and Scopoletin are established for the first time. The results: southernwood-root contains volatile oil about 0.30 percent, total flavonoids 0.29 percent, Kaempferol 0.1643 mg/g, total coumarin 0.2755 percent, Scopoletin 0.3703 mg/g, also show that the root of Artemisia annua has no Arteanuin. The results enrich the southernwood-root on the chemical composition, and provide reference for the quality standard of southernwood-root. The study has laid the foundation of the relevance between the chemical composition and efficacy of southernwood-root.(4) In this paper, first play the inhibitory rate as an indicator of anticancer drugs for the validity research of southernwood root and the filter of effective anti-tumor parts. And by immunohistochemical method, initial explored the southernwood-root on impact of tumor angiogenesis for Anti-tumor mechanism. The results showed that: root-alcohol extract of Artemisia annua and extraction after the remaining parts (water parts) on low-dose group transplanted mice with sarcoma S180 significantly inhibit tumor rate was 40.4426% (more than 40 per cent), 38.5883 % (more than 30 per cent). Southernwood-root is better than the alcohol extract of southernwood and Arteanuin, tumor-bearing mice on the thymus and spleen are not significantly affected, and they are able to extend the survival time of tumor-bearing mice. At the same time, it also suggested that the root of southernwood anti-tumor effect may be associated with reduced angiogenesis factor VEGF expression to inhibit tumor angiogenesis-related. This shows that southernwood has great potential in developing roots to anti-cancer drug, and the anti-tumor effects worthy of more in-depth study.