Antioxidant and antimicrobial phenolic compounds from extracts of cultivated and wild-grown Tunisian Ruta chalepensis

Abstract The antioxidant and antibacterial activities of phenolic compounds from cultivated and wild Tunisian Ruta chalepensis L. leaves, stems, and flowers were assessed. The leaves and the flowers exhibited high but similar total polyphenol, flavonoid, and tannin content. Moreover, two organs showed strong, although not significantly different, total antioxidant activity, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl scavenging ability, and reducing power. Investigation of the phenolic composition showed that vanillic acid and coumarin were the major compounds in the two organs, with higher percentages in the cultivated organs than in the spontaneous organs. Furthermore, R. chalepensis extracts showed marked antibacterial properties against human pathogen strains, and the activity was organ- and origin-dependent. Spontaneous stems had the strongest activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa . From these results, it was concluded that domestication of Ruta did not significantly affect its chemical composition and consequently the possibility of using R. chalpensis organs as a potential source of natural antioxidants and as an antimicrobial agent in the food industry

Eco-extraction of aniseed oil: Use of green solvent as alternative solvent to n-hexane

Pimpinella anisum L. (anise) seeds have been widely used as a culinary ingredient as well as traditional remedies for the treatment of different disorders in the folk medicine systems of different civilizations. Its essential oil show many properties and is already well studied and used. The lipid fraction of the seeds has also already been investigated. Petroselinic acid was the most prevalent fatty acid in anis oil seeds. This one also presents several properties. Nowadays, fixed oils are extracted with the help of petrosolvents. This raise issues regarding environment and security, but also public health. Regulations are more and more strict and alternative more and more searched. In general, those ones consist in the use of substitution solvents. Thus, the purpose of this work was designed to evaluate the performances of a green solvent compared to n-hexane in aniseed oil extraction

Salinity impact on seed yield, polyphenols composition and antioxidant activity of Fennel (Foeniculum vulgarae Mill) extracts

Recently, medicinal and aromatic plants have received much attention in several fields such agroalimentary, perfumes, pharmaceutical industries and natural cosmetic products. The consumption of herbal medicines is widespread and is continuously increasing worldwide. Although, secondary metabolites in the medicinal and aromatic plants were fundamentally produced by genetic processing but, their biosynthesis is strongly influenced by environmental factors. Salinity is one of the major factors that affect essential oil biosynthesis and secretion (Heuer et al. 2002). In Tunisia, salt-affected soils cover about 10% of the total area of the country. Salinity led to biochemical disorders and can change plant behaviour regarding the biosynthesis of primary and secondary metabolites. Among all the secondary metabolites synthesized by plants, phenolic compounds are some of the most widespread. In this context, this research evaluated the effect of salinity on total and individual polyphenols contents as well as the antioxidant activities of fennel (Foeniculum vulgarae Mill.) seeds of two geographic origins, Tunisia (TFS) and Egypt (EFS). This plant is one of the most common aromatics in the Mediterranean kitchen. Plants were treated with different concentrations of NaCl treatment: 0, 50, and 75 mmoL. Plant growth was significantly reduced with the severity of saline treatment. This also caused important reductions in the seed yield and yield components. Besides, total polyphenol content was higher in treated seeds, and salinity improved the amount of individual phenolic compounds. Moreover, antioxidant activities of the extracts were determined by four different test systems, namely 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, β-carotene/linoleic acid chelating, and reducing power assays. The highest antioxidant activities were reveled in severe stressed plants for both TFS and EFS. In this case, fennel seeds produced under saline conditions may function as a potential source of antioxidant compounds, which could support the utilization of this plant in a large field of applications such as food industry

Comparative assessment of phytochemical profiles and antioxidant properties of Tunisian and Egyptian anise (Pimpinella anisum L.) seeds

Anis (Pimpinella anisum L.) seeds obtained from two geographic origins Tunisia (TAS) and Egypte (EAS) were studied regarding their biochemical composition and the antioxidant potential of their extracts. The results showed that the highest value of oil was detected with TAS compared to that of EAS ones. Ten (10) fatty acids were identified for the two locations and petroselinic acid was the most prevalent in oil seeds and interestingly, TAS displayed a significantly higher level of this acid than EAS. Besides, TAS exhibited slightly higher essential oil yield than the Egyptian variety and that trans-anethole was the dominant for the two provenances. In both accessions, the highest total phenolic, flavonoid and tannin content was obtained with ethyl acetate fraction. Therefore, TAS exhibited higher chelating and reducing powers than EAS which may be due to a slightly different phenolic composition between the two accession seed extracts. The phenolic compositions of TAS and EAS revealed that ethyl acetate extracts showed higher proportions of naringin, chlorogenic acid and rosmarinic acid. However, ethanol extracts were richer in larcitrin, rosmarinic acid and cirsimartin. The overall results revealed that aniseeds might constitute a novel source of natural antioxidants and could be used as food additive

Study of Tunisian plant extracts as bioherbicide

Weeds constantly compete with crops for water and nutrient resources reducing yield, quality and consequently causing huge economic losses (Araniti et al., 2015) that can rise up to 34% in major crops (Jabran et al., 2015). Actually, the current trend is to find a biological product to minimize the perceived impacts from synthetic herbicides in agriculture production (Sbai et al., 2016). In this context, the herbicidal activity of ten crude different extracts obtained from aerial parts of Tunisian spontaneous plants was determined on post-emergence at 7.5, 20 and 34 g/L against Trifolium incanatum, sylibum marianum and Phalaris minor. Aerial plant materials were grounded and macerated with methanol for 24H. Methanol was then eliminated using a rotavapor. The yield of plant extracts varied between 5.29% and 29.71 % following the species. Extracts 6, 8, and 3 exhibit the best activity in terms of visual effect by spraying on weeds. Moreover, a formulation was carried out to improve their efficiency. The results showed that formulated E6 has completely punctured Trifolium incanatum and has inhibited growth of Phalaris minor and Sylibum marianum. A fractionation of E6 was then carried out. Five fractions were obtained and tested on Trifolium incanatum. Among these fractions, F2 formulated at 20 g/L showed a very similar effect to a commercial bioherbicide. It caused the total death of Trifolium incanatum 9 days after spraying. Based on bioassay-guided fractionation, five compounds were identified which can be employed in developing new types of bioherbicides for controlling weeds on crops. In addition, the strong weed suppressive ability of formulated F2 therefore offers interesting possibilities as an effective natural environment-friendly approach for weed management

Biochemical characterization and antioxidant activity of grape ( Vitis vinifera L.) seed oils from nine Tunisian varieties

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