2. Methods and materials
2.1. Extraction of the oil
Volatile oil was hydrodistilled from freshly collected mature
leaves of A. scoparia Waldst. & Kit. (red stem wormwood; hereafter
Artemisia) using a Clevenger’s apparatus (Singh et al., 2009). Leaves
were collected during 3rd week of July 2007 from the plants growing
in wastelands around Chandigarh. The oil was light yellow in
colour with a yield of 0.21% (v/w, fresh weight basis). It was stored
at 4 ◦C for further use in bioassay and composition determination