Introduction: Traditional medicine has an important place in human history and this since antiquity. Indeed, during Egyptian and Chinese civilization era, many detailed manuscripts, describing the therapeutic effect of plants, were found which suggest that folk medicine is the basis of the actual medicine. Objective: To investigate the phytochemical and pharmacological properties of the n-butanol (n-BuOH) and ethyl acetate (EA) extracts of the aerial part of Centaurea tougourensis. Methods: The phytochemical evaluation was done based on HPLC-DAD approach. The antioxidant activity was determined by DPPH and cupric ion reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC), while the hemostatic effect was performed using plasma recalcification time (PRT) method. The antidiabetic capacity was investigated by alpha-amylase inhibition assay and the photoprotective test was evaluated by the measurement of sun protection factor (SPF). Results: 13 phenolic compounds were identified in both extracts of C. tougourensis. These extracts showed antioxidant, haemostatic, antidiabetic and photoprotective properties with a dose-dependent manner. Amounts of n-BuOH activities were found higher, with a respective IC50 value of 0.72±0.07 μg/ml in DPPH assay, an A0.50 value lower than 3.125 μg/ml in CUPRAC assay besides a shortening rate percentage of coagulation (86.71%) in haemostatic assay, a moderate inhibition effect on alpha amylase activity with an IC50 value of (711.5±0.03 μg/ml) and a maximum sun protection factor of (56.035). These results were mostly found highly significant (p<0.001) when compared to respective standards. Conclusion: This study demonstrated some pharmacological effects of C. tougourensis which suggests that our plant could be a good candidate to treat some illnesses related to oxidative stress, bleeding or skin cancer.

Context: More than 500 Centaurea species compose the Asteraceae family, and most of the recent studies made on the species of this genus proved their pharmacological potential, especially to treat chronic illnesses. Aims: To evaluate for the first time the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective and anti-microbial properties of the n-butanol (nBuOH) and ethyl acetate (EA) extracts of the aerial part of Centaurea tougourensis. Methods: The antioxidant activity was determined by ABTS, galvinoxyl radical, phenanthroline, and reducing power assays, while the antiinflammatory effects were assessed by heat-induced hemolysis and egg albumin denaturation assays. The neuroprotective activity was assessed against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and the anti-microbial activity by the agar disk diffusion method. Results: Both extracts possess a great antioxidant capacity, but it was considered higher in the n-BuOH extract with respective IC50 values of 8.04 ± 0.21 μg/mL in ABTS assay and 4.25 ± 0.6 μg/mL in GOR assay, while the A0.50 values were 4.46 ± 0.55 μg/mL in phenanthroline assay and 11.16 ± 0.64 μg/mL in reducing power assay. The n-BuOH extract also showed a remarkable anti-inflammatory activity with an EC50 of 120.81 ± 0.2 μg/mL in egg albumin denaturation assay and 154.15 ± 0.14 μg/mL in heat-induced hemolysis assay. The neuroprotective activity of the n-BuOH extract was very strong in both AChE and BChE inhibitory assays with respective IC50 values of 9.8 ± 0.62 μg/mL and 173.53 ± 0.04 μg/mL. EA extract was more active on microbial strains. Conclusions: These encouraging results showed once again the pharmacological potential of Centaurea species

Context: This is the first study on the phytochemistry, antioxidant, anticholinesterase, and antibacterial activities of Sedum caeruleum L. (Crassulaceae). Objective: The objective of this study is to isolate the secondary metabolites and determine the antioxidant, anticholinesterase, and antibacterial activities of S. caeruleum. Materials and methods: Six compounds (1–6) were isolated from the extracts of S. caeruleum and elucidated using UV, 1D-, 2D-NMR, and MS techniques. Antioxidant activity was investigated using DPPH•, CUPRAC, and ferrous-ions chelating assays. Anticholinesterase activity was determined against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) enzymes using the Ellman method. Antibacterial activity was performed according to disc diffusion and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) methods. Results: Isolated compounds were elucidated as ursolic acid (1), daucosterol (2), β-sitosterol-3-O-β-d-galactopyranoside (3), apigenin (4), apigetrin (5), and apiin (6). The butanol extract exhibited highest antioxidant activity in all tests (IC50 value: 28.35 ± 1.22 µg/mL in DPPH assay, IC50 value: 40.83 ± 2.24 µg/L in metal chelating activity, and IC50value: 23.52 ± 0.44 µg/L in CUPRAC), and the highest BChE inhibitory activity (IC50 value: 36.89 ± 0.15 µg/L). Moreover, the chloroform extract mildly inhibited (MIC value: 80 µg/mL) the growth of all the tested bacterial strains. Discussion and conclusion: Ursolic acid (1), daucosterol (2), β-sitosterol-3-O-β-d-galactopyranoside (3), apigenin (4), apigetrin (5), and apiin (6) were isolated from Sedum caeruleum for the first time. In addition, a correlation was observed between antioxidant and anticholinesterase activities of bioactive ingredients of this plant.

Les présents travaux concernent deux plantes du genre Sedum (Crassulaceae). S. caeruleum et S. pubescens. L’extraction et les séparations chromatographiques (CC, CCM) des fractions chloroformique, acétate d’éthyle et n-butanol de S. caeruleum ont permis d’isoler 6 produits qui ont été identifiés grâce aux méthodes spectroscopiques (UV, RMN 1D et 2D) : 1- Acide ursolique 2- Daucosterol (β-sitosterol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside) 3- β-sitosterol-3-O-β-D-galactopyranoside 4- Apigénine 5- Apigétrine 6- Apiine L’analyse LC-ESI-MS/MS de la fraction butanolique de Sedum caeruleum nous a permis d’identifier 23 composés dont 11 acides phénoliques et 12 flavonoïdes glycosides Les résultats d’étude des activités biologiques de S. caeruleum et S. pubescens sont comme suit : - Les fractions n-butanol des espèces S. caeruleum et S. pubescens ont montré la meilleure activité antiradicalaire avec le test du DPPH. - Les fractions chloroformique de S. caeruleum et butanolique de S. pubescens ont manifesté la meilleure activité avec le test CUPRAC. - La fraction butanolique de S. caeruleum a montré la meilleure activité avec le test du métal chélate. - Les fractions butanolique de S. caeruleum et butanolique de S. pubescens ont manifesté la meilleure activité avec le test du β-carotène. - La fraction butanolique de S. caeruleum a inhibé l’activité de la butyrylcholinesterase. - La fraction chloroformique de S. caeruleum a montré une excellente activité antiinflammatoire supérieure à celle du standard (l’ibuprofène). - La fraction chloroformique de S. caeruleum a moyennement inhibé la croissance des souches bactériennes testées.

The chemical composition of the hydrodistilled essential oil of Satureja calamintha ssp. sylvatica, collected from Jijel (Eastern Algerian), was analyzed by GC and GC/MS. 23 components representing 94.45% of the essential oil were detected with isopulegone (66.5%) and pulegone (11.6%) as the major components. The antibacterial activity of the essential oil was tested against 10 gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria by the use of the disc diffusion method.

The essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation of fresh aerial parts of Ferula lutea Poiret (Apiaceae) was analyzed by GC and GC-MS. Twenty one compounds were characterized representing 84.9 % of the essential oil with the prevalence of 2,3,6-trimethylbenzene (25.0 %), cis-chrysanthenol (20.8 %), α-pinene (10.9 %) and thymol (10.2 %).

Santolina is a small genus of the large subfamily Asteraceae of the family Compositae. Species of this genus are used in folk medicine as anthelmintic, antispasmodic, and antifectious agent [1]. Sesquiterpene lactones and volatile terpenes have been isolated from the Spanish subspecies S. rosmarinifolia subsp. canescens, S. rosmarinifolia subsp. rosmarinifolia, and S. chamaecyparissus [2, 3, 4, 5]. Terpenes and acetylene derivatives were reported from the roots of S. corsica [6], but no flavonoids have been reported from these two subspecies. The Algerian species S. rosmarinifolia L. [7] has not been the subject of any phytochemical study. It will be interesting to investigate the presence of 6-methoxyflavones previously reported from S. chamaecyparissus [8, 9]. The aerial parts of S. rosmarinifolia were collected on may 2008 in the region of Batna (North Eastern Algerian) [7]. The voucher specimen was identified by Prof. Gerard De Belair (University Badji-Mokhtar, Annaba) and was...

The essential oil of fresh aerial part of Ammoides atlantica Coss. et Dur. (Apiaceae), obtained by hydrodistillation in a Clevenger-type apparatus, was analyzed by GC-MS. Twenty compounds were characterized representing 97.9 % of the essential oil with safranal (17.9 %), endo-borneol (17.6 %), chrysanthenone (15.5 %), filifolone (12.1 %) and camphor (11.8 %) as main components.