Chemical Variability and Antioxidant Activities of the Essential Oils of the Aerial Parts of Ammoides verticillata and the Roots of Carthamus caeruleus and their Synergistic Effect in Combination.

AIM AND OBJECTIVE: Oxidative stress is implicated in the development and progression of many diseases. Some of the appropriate actions that could taken to resolve the problem of these diseases are search for new antioxidant substances isolated from plants. The aims of this study were to research the intraspecies variations of A. verticillata and C. caeruleus essential oils from 8 locations using statistical analysis, the in vitro antioxidant properties of collective essential oils and in combinations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The essential oils were analyzed by GC and GC-MS. The intraspecies variations of the essential oil compositions were discussed using principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA). The antioxidant properties were evaluated DPPH-radical scavenging activity and ß-carotene bleaching test. RESULTS: The main components of Ammoides verticillata collective essential oil (Coll EO) were thymol (30.5%), carvacrol (23.2%), p-cymene (13.1%), limonene (12.5%) and terpinene-4-ol (12.3%). While roots of Carthamus caeruleus essential oil were dominated by carline oxide (86.2%). The chemical variability allowed the discrimination of two main Groups for both Coll EOs. A direct correlation between the altitudes, climate and the chemical compositions was evidenced. Ammoides verticulata and Carthamus caeruleus Coll Eos showed good antioxidant activity. In binary mixture, the interaction between both Coll Eos and between oils rich of thymol and/or carvacrol with carlina oxide produced the best synergistic effects compared to individual essential oils and the synthetic antioxidant (BHT). CONCLUSION: Ammoides verticillata and Carthamus caeruleus essential oil blends can be used as a natural food preservative and alternative to chemical antioxidants.

Anti-Inflammatory, Antimicrobial and Insecticidal Properties of Daucus Gracilis Steinh Flowers Essential Oil.

BACKGROUND: Daucus gracilis Steinh belongs to the Apiaceae family. The flowers of this plant have been used by the population of western Algeria for the treatment of mouth ulcers. However, very few studies exist concerning the biological properties of essential oil of Daucus gracilis Steinh flowers. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this work was to study the chemical composition of the essential oil of Daucus gracilis flowers and to evaluate their antimicrobial, insecticidal and anti-inflammatory properties. METHODS: The distilled essential oil was analyzed by GC and GC-MS. The antimicrobial activity of the essential oil was evaluated using two methods i) diffusion method, and ii) micro dilution technique. The insecticidal activity of essential oil was evaluated against adults of Tribolium confusum by fumigant test. The in vitro assessment of the anti-inflammatory property of essential oil was assessed by the protein denaturation method. RESULTS: Daucus gracilis flowers essential oil mainly represented oxygenated monoterpenes such as geranyl acetate (18.3%), lavandulyl acetate (15.2%), lavandulyl isobutyrate (13.6%) and citronellyl isobutyrate (6.8%). According to the results of antimicrobial activity, the essential oil of flowers presented prominent inhibitory action against Aspergillus flavus (0.06 µg/mL), followed by Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia faecalis, Bacillus cereus and Candida albicans with MIC values of 0.125 µg/mL. The Daucus gracilis essential oil flowers proved to be very biocidal toward adults of Tribolium confusum; mortality of 100% of the population was noted with a dose of 2 µl/L air after 24 hours of exposure. Furthermore, the oil has shown a very good inhibition of protein denaturation comparable to Diclofenac at a concentration of 30 µL/mL. CONCLUSION: Daucus gracilis essential oil can be used as a pharmacological tools for inflammatory, antimicrobial and insecticidal properties.

Biological activities and volatile constituents of Daucus muricatus L. from Algeria.

BACKGROUND: In order to find new bioactive natural products, the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of essential oil components extracted from the separated organs of the Algerian medicinal and aromatic plant Daucus muricatus L. were studied. RESULTS: The chemical composition of essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation (HD) was investigated using Gas Chromatography-Retention Indices (GC-RI) and GC-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). Two types of essential oils were produced by D. muricatus: (i) The oil from roots is mainly composed by nonterpenic oxygenated compounds (59.8 g/100 g), and (ii) the aerial part oils (i.e., the leaves, stems, flowers, and umbels) was mainly composed by terpenic hydrocarbon compounds (62.3-72.2 g/100 g). The chemical composition of the volatile fraction isolated from different organs of Daucus muricatus were studied by HS-SPME/GC-RI and GC-MS after optimization of Solid Phase MicroExtraction parameters. For all organs studied, the main volatiles emitted by the plant were hydrocarbon compounds (60.7-82.2 g/100 g). Only quantitative differences between the volatiles of the separated organs studied were observed. In addition, the activity of the oil of D. muricatus against eight bacterial strains and one yeast was investigated. The oil from roots revealed active against S. aureus, while the essential oil obtained from the aerial parts was active against the yeast C. albicans. CONCLUSIONS: Daucus muricatus essential oil seems be a promising source of natural products with potential antimicrobial activity.

Characterization of volatile compounds of Daucus crinitus Desf. Headspace Solid Phase Microextraction as alternative technique to Hydrodistillation.

BACKGROUND: Traditionally, the essential oil of aromatic herbs is obtained using hydrodistillation (HD). Because the emitted volatile fraction plays a fundamental role in a plant's life, various novel techniques have been developed for its extraction from plants. Among these, headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) can be used to obtain a rapid fingerprint of a plant's headspace. Daucus crinitus Desf. is a wild plant that grows along the west coast of Algeria. Only a single study has dealt with the chemical composition of the aerial part oils of Algerian D. crinitus, in which isochavicol isobutyrate (39.0%), octyl acetate (12.3%), and ß-caryophyllene (5.4%) were identified. Using GC-RI and GC-MS analysis, the essential oils and the volatiles extracted from separated organs of D. crinitus Desf. were studied using HS-SPME. RESULTS: GC-RI and GC-MS analysis identified 72 and 79 components in oils extracted using HD and in the volatile fractions extracted using SPME, respectively. Two types of essential oils were produced by the plant: the root oils had aliphatic compounds as the main component (87.0%-90.1%), and the aerial part oils had phenylpropanoids as the main component (43.1%-88.6%). HS-SPME analysis showed a more precise distribution of compounds in the organs studied: oxygenated aliphatic compounds were well represented in the roots (44.3%-84.0%), hydrocarbon aliphatic compounds were in the leaves and stems (22.2%-87.9%), and phenylpropanoids were in the flowers and umbels (47.9%-64.2%). Moreover, HS-SPME allowed the occurrence of isochavicol (29.6 - 34.7%) as main component in D. crinitus leaves, but it was not detected in the oils, probably because of its solubility in water. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that HD and HS-SPME modes could be complimentary extraction techniques in order to obtain the complete characterization of plant volatiles.