Determination of α-and β-thujone in Wormwood and Sage Infusions of Greek flora and Estimation of their Average Toxicity

Artemisia absinthium (wormwood) and Salvia sp. (sage) are used as additives to pharmaceuticals, food and alcoholic beverages while in Greece both herbs are also consumed as infusions. The compounds alpha- and beta-thujone, are monoterpenes, which are found in various preparations of these herbs. According to organizations (EMA, SCF) and clinical studies,alpha- and beta-thujone have shown neurotoxic effects in humans over established limits. In this study wormwood and sage infusions were investigated in terms of the relative % content of the volatile constituents and the concentrations of alpha- and beta-thujone by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In sage infusions,alpha-thujone was the predominant isomer while in wormwood alpha-thujone was dominated. Our results revealed that most of the above herbal infusions exceed thujone limits as set by EMA, which are 3 mg/day for wormwood and 5 mg/day for sage. Furthermore, the average toxicity as performed by the Microtox (R) Analyzer showed higher levels of toxicity in sage infusions compared to the wormwood. No correlation was found between thujone content and toxicity levels of both sage and wormwood infusions.