Southern wormwood (Artemisia abrotanum L.) is a widely distributed plant from the Asteraceae family that produces a variety of volatile oils. This research explores the production of secondary metabolites in Southern wormwood by extracting the essential oils from control specimens grown in the greenhouse compared with regenerated wormwood in culture or sterile soil. Analysis of the essential oils was performed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Control plants grown in soil were similar to regenerated plants grown in soil. For regenerated plants grown in culture, the largest differences in production were increases in nordavanone (fivefold over control) and (E)-2-decanal (sixfold over control). In vitro cultures were also tested with heat-treated Gram-positive (Bacillus subtilis) or Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) bacterial cultures. Regenerated plants grown in the presence of 1% (v/v) E. coli differed from all other culture treatments in highly elevated levels of trans-alpha-bergamotene, alpha-acoradiene, and gleenol with large reductions in davanone and 8-cedren-13-ol. Regenerated plants grown in culture without bacterial treatment showed higher levels of nordavanone and (E)-2-decanal versus plants in culture treated with bacteria. When comparing classes of compounds, the major observation was a large increase in sesquiterpene hydrocarbons and a large decrease in tetrahydrofuran for cultures treated with 1% (v/v) E. coli relative to all other treatments. While each treatment presented distinct profiles of secondary metabolites, the present data suggested that Southern wormwood showed the largest response to being treated with 1% (v/v) E. coli.

艾草（Artemisia abrotanum L.）是一种分布广泛的菊科植物，可产生多种挥发油。本研究通过从温室中生长的对照标本中提取精油，与培养物或无菌土壤中的再生艾草进行比较，探讨了南方艾草次生代谢物的产生。通过气相色谱-质谱法（GC/MS）对精油进行分析。在土壤中生长的对照植物与在土壤中生长的再生植物相似。对于培养物中生长的再生植物，产量的最大差异是去甲达酮（是对照的五倍）和（E）-2-癸醛（是对照的六倍）的增加。还用热处理的革兰氏阳性菌测试了体外培养物（枯草芽孢杆菌）或革兰氏阴性（大肠杆菌）细菌培养物。在 1% ( v/v ) 大肠杆菌 存在下生长的再生植物与所有其他培养处理的不同之处在于，反式 α-佛手柑烯、α-acoradiene 和 glenol 的水平高度升高，而戴维酮和 8-雪松酚的水平大幅降低。 13-ol。与经过细菌处理的培养物相比，在未经细菌处理的培养物中生长的再生植物表现出更高水平的去甲烷酮和(E)-2-癸醛。在比较化合物类别时，主要观察结果是，对于用 1% ( v/v )大肠杆菌处理的培养物，倍半萜烯碳氢化合物大幅增加，四氢呋喃大幅减少相对于所有其他治疗。虽然每种处理都呈现出不同的次生代谢物特征，但目前的数据表明，南方艾草对用 1% ( v/v )大肠杆菌处理的反应最大。