Phytochemical Profiles of Artemisia albida Willd.: Potential for PTP1B, α-Glucosidase, BNA, DPPH and Molecular Docking Analysis

Traditional herbal medicine has been an important source of therapeutic agents to treat various diseases since long ago and the genus Artemisia is drawing a lot of attention owing to its diversity of biologically active secondary metabolites. In the present study, our team focused on Artemisia albida Willd., which was collected in the Almaty region of Kazakhstan. Using various chromatographic techniques, 15 compounds were obtained. Their structures were elucidated by HRESIMS, NMR, and ECD, revealing a new-skeleton sesquiterpenoid, Albiterpene A (1), together with one known sesquiterpene, one lignan, one fatty acid ester, and 11 phenolic compounds. The absolute configuration of Albiterpene A was determined by the TDDFT ECD calculation. Meanwhile, the inhibitory and radical-scavenging activities of the isolated compounds were evaluated using α-glucosidase, PTP1B, BNA and DPPH assays. Among all tested compounds, arteanoflavone exhibited the most potent α-glucosidase (IC50 = 3.2 ± 0.07 μM) and PTP1B (IC50 = 6.8 ± 0.14 μM) inhibition and strong DPPH radical-scavenging activity (IC50 = 1.5 ± 0.03 μM), outperforming the positive controls DNJ and Trolox. Molecular docking was employed to elucidate the possible binding modes of arteanoflavone, chlorogenic acid, and caffeic acid ethyl ester against PTP1B (1NNY) and human α-glucosidase (2QMJ). The docking scores suggested a consistent binding affinity ranking across both targets: chlorogenic acid > arteanoflavone > caffeic acid ethyl ester.