The chemical composition of the essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation from Artemisia campestris L (family Asteraceae) and Juniperus phoenicea L (family Cupressaceae) collected in Djebel Amour (Sahara Atlas, Algeria). Aerial parts were also evaluated by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The analyses for leaves and fruits of A. campestris resulted in the identification of thirty-one compounds, representing 91.8 % of the total oil and the yields were 0.33% (v/dry weight). The main components were ?-pinene and sabinene (25.6% and 17% respectively) followed by ?-pinene (9.9%), limonene (6.6 %) and p-cymene (4.1%). forty-two compounds were identified in leaves and fruits of J. phoenicea representing 97% of the total oil composition. The yield of essential oil was 0.44 % and the major compound in aerial parts was ?-pinene (75.8%) followed by ?-3- carene (3.4%), linalool (2.7%).
To contribute to the development of local medicinal plants for their therapeutic properties, we are interested in the study of Citrullus Colocynthis plant known in traditional medicine. The Citrullus Colocynthis is a desert plant encountered on sandy soils in the region of Ghardaia and also very well known for its medicinal virtues. In the present work we have characterized the seed oil of the plant with a yield of 17,854%, for the determination of different chemical indicators such as the acid value (AV), iodine (II), of saponification (IS), peroxide (IP) and physical indicia as the refractive index (RI) and the density. The result shows that this oil is rich in fatty acids such as palmitic acid (C16) and stearic (C18). The defatted seed contain a very large amount of proteins studied by three methods: Biuret, Lowry and Kjeldahl method.
Oxidative stress is responsible for several diseases. This phenomenal has moved researchers into action in looking for new remedies «antioxidants». In this context, the study of the antioxidant activity of hydro-ethanolic extracts of eight (08) plants used in Algerian pharmacopoeia has been performed. These plants are from Laghouat region ((Atlas Sahara). The extracts from these eight plants were obtained by ultrasound assisted extraction. The quantitative estimation of flavonoids, flavanones and total phenols by the spectophotometric method showed that the eight extracts contain these compounds. The evaluation of antioxidant capacity by the method of free radical scavenging test showed that all of the extracts have a very good reductive activity, especially for Arbutus undo extract which presented a percentage of inhibition equal to 90% with an EC50 estimated to 0.006 mg/ml. On the other hand, the FRAP test revealed that the Zizyphus lotus extract has the best reducing power than those of the other extracts, but it remains relatively low compared to the ascorbic acid used as positive control.
Show abstract
Full Text
