Isolation of bioactive secondary metabolites from tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus L.) and identification of their chemical structures

In this thesis, inhibition activities of extracts and pure metabolites of the aerial parts of Artemisia dracunculus L. were investigated against human carbonic anhydrase I and II isoenzymes. Four metabolites coded as AD-1, AD-2, AD-3 and AD-4 were isolated from dichloromethane extract and the chemical structure of AD-1 was characterised with IR, 1D and 2D NMR methods as herniarin. Enzyme inhibition activities of ethanol, dichloromethane, n-hexane and methanol extracts of A. dracunculus L. and herniarin were investigated against human carbonic anhidrase I and II isoenzymes and their IC50 values were calculated. In this study, first time it was determined that extracts and major component, herniarin of A. dracunculus L were found to be strongly inhibitor againts the human carbonic anhydrase I and II isoenzyme. For the first time in this thesis, it was also revealed that A. dracunculus L. exracts and herniarin were carbonic anhydrase enzyme inhibitors directly associated with epilepsy and glaucoma.