Feasibility of Cultivating Artemisia afra Jacq. ex Willd in Côte d’Ivoire (Daloa) and Evaluation of Its Genetic Diversity on the Basis of Phenotypic Variations

Abstract

In the southern African regions, Artemisia afra Jacq. ex Willd is one of the most popular and commonly used herbal medicines. In recent years, A. afra has received much attention from the scientific community and its use is being investigated in the modern diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and respiratory diseases. This growth in popularity could pose a threat to the species due to intensive harvesting. Indeed, overexploitation is a growing problem for many medicinal species in Africa. To sustain the production and availability of A. afra, cultivation seems to be a good strategy and an alternative to collecting in the wild. Unlike A. annua L. (source of artemisinin), little information is available on the cultivation of A. Afra in West African countries. In this study, feasibility of cultivating A. Afra in Côte d’Ivoire was evaluated and the extent of its genetic diversity was assessed based on morphological variations. A. annua L. was used as control. The result showed for A. afra, 30 and 28.02% nursery and field mortality respectively, and 27.77% and 0% for A. annua. A. annua showed faster growth and development kinetics during the first 90 days after field transplantation. A. annua was relatively earlier (83 days to flowering on average) than A. afra (207.20 days to flowering on average). Contrary to A. annua, A. afra was sterile and did not give viable seeds, which poses a major problem of acclimatization in the environmental conditions of Côte d’Ivoire. Assessment of morphological traits revealed significant variations within and between species. Multivariate analysis showed important intra and interspecific genetic diversity. The plants of A. afra and A. annua were grouped separately and six major clusters were found: two clusters in A. annua (cluster I and II) and four clusters in A. afra (cluster III, IV, V and VI). These results show that further studies need to be considered to make cultivation of A. afra possible in Côte d’Ivoire with superior and genetically stable genotypes.

Keywords: Artemisia afra, Artemisia annua, genetic diversity, cultivation

DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/10-24-04

Publication date: December 31^st 2020