Artemisia rutifolia Willd. ex Spreng. - Asteraceae - 香叶蒿 xiang ye hao (chin.)
Subshrubs or shrubs, caespitose, 20-80 cm tall, strongly aromatic, silky puberulent, glabrescent; rootstock woody, much branched, 1.5-2.5 cm thick. Stem branches 20-30 cm.
Hills, dry river valleys, basins, steppes, semideserts, Gobi Desert; 1300-5000 m. Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Xizang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan; SW Asia]. efloras.org
The essential oil (hydrodistillation) from the aerial parts of Artemisia rutifolia from two different regions of Tajikistan were dominated by α-thujone (20.9% and 36.6%) and β-thujone (47.3% and 36.1%) with lesser amounts of 1,8-cineole (3.2% and 11.7%) and germacrene D (2.8% and 1.8%).
[Sharopov, Farukh S., and William N. Setzer. „Thujone-rich essential oils of Artemisia rutifolia Stephan ex Spreng. growing wild in Tajikistan.“ Journal of Essential Oil Bearing Plants 14.2 (2011): 136-139] PDF
 thujone |  4-phenyl-2-butanone (benzylacetone) |  1,8-cineole |  camphor |
Essential oils of Artemisia rutifolia can be divided into “Tajik” (prevalence of α- and β-thujone) and “Buryat-Mongol” (prevalence of benzylacetone and camphor) chemotypes.
[Dylenova, Elena P., et al. „Chemical Diversity of Artemisia rutifolia Essential Oil, antimicrobial and antiradical activity.“ Plants 12.6 (2023): 1289] PDF
Essential oil of A. rutifolia was obtained from samples collected in the Middle Gobi province of Mongolia. „Particular attention was devoted to the identification of the minor phenylbutanoids and a preliminary determination of the main contributors to the odor of the oil. Hence, the essential oil was fractionated by column chromatography and subjected to GC-MS/FID and GC-O/FID analyses. Camphor, 1,8-cineole, and 4-phenylbutan-2-one were identified as the dominant compounds, the latter being the main odorant responsible for the typical fresh-fruity smell of the plant. Moreover, α- and β-thujones were absent, and seven previously unreported 4-phenylbut-2-yl esters were unambiguously identified through combinatorial synthesis.“
[Irrera, Elisa, et al. „4-Phenylbut-2-yl Esters from the Essential Oil of Artemisia rutifolia from Mongolia.“ Molecules 31.6 (2026): 926] PDF
Artemisia rutifolia, Mongolia (2025) © Pyak Andrei CC BY-SA 4.0 inaturalist.org