Hydrodistillation kinetic and biological investigations of essential oils from the Tunisiam Crithmum maritimum L.

This work describes the study of the chemical composition and bioactivity of the essential oils of Crithmum maritimum and the location of dillapiole one of their major and bioactive constituents. This compound was detected at increasing percentages in all the collected fractions during the extraction process. The highest percentage of dillapiole was obtained in the last fraction (F9) with 100% in the roots. The essentials oils of roots and aerial parts and F9 were assayed for their antiradical and enzymatic antioxidant properties (Catalase and Paraoxonase), the results showed that F9 and the roots essential oil improve the activity of Catalase and Paraoxonase, respectively. The isolated oils and F9 were tested against five bacteria and four candida species. The oil roots exhibited significant activity towards Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis. Dillapiole was found to be the strongest anticandidal. The cytotoxic activity of essential oils and F9 was evaluated against Hela and A549 cancer cell lines. F9 exhibited the best cytotoxic effect against Hela cell line. These results may suggest that C. maritimum essential oils can be used as a good source of dillapiole which could be used as a natural preservative ingredient in food and/or for pharmaceutical preparations

Chemical composition, antioxidant and anti-acetylcholinesterase activities of Tunisian Crithmum maritimum L. essential oils

Acetylcholinesterase properties of the aerial parts and roots essential oils from Crithmum maritimum L., Apiaceae, gathered in the area of Monastir (Tunisia). The essential oils have been analysed by GC and GC-MS. Remarkable differences were found between the constituent percentages of the different studied organs. The most important compounds from the aerial parts were: γ-terpinene (39.3%), methylcarvacrol (21.6%) and p-cymene (11.8%). In the roots oil, the main components were terpinolene (36.9%), dillapiole (26.8%) and γ-terpinene (21.9%). The antioxidant activity of the two oils was evaluated by employing 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl hydrate (DPPH) and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging tests. The results showed that the antioxidant capacity assessed by different in vitro tests were moderate, the ABTS assay after 20 min (IC50 = 0.051 mg/mL) of aerial parts and (IC50 = 0.643 mg/mL) of the roots, appeared to be more potent than that for the DPPH assay (IC50 = 0.92 mg/mL) of aerial parts and (IC50 = 0.048 mg/mL) of roots. In addition, the examined oils showed the highest AchE inhibitory 1 mg/mL activity (31.16% and 26.35%, for the aerial parts and roots, respectively