Antimycobacterial, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of essential oil of gall of Pistacia atlantica Desf. From Algeria

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the antimycobacterial, antioxidant and the cytotoxic activities of the essential oil from the gall part of Pistacia atlantica Desf from Algeria.Materials and Methods: The antimycobacterial activity was evaluated by the broth microdilution method against three species of mycobacteria: Mycobacterium smegmatis, Mycobacterium aurum and Mycobacterium fortuitum. Antioxidant activity was determined using free-radical scavenging assays. The safety of essential oil was assessed by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay on C3A and Vero monkey kidney cells.Results: The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranged from 0.16 to 2.5 mg/mL with minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) values ranged from 0.62 to >2.5 mg/mL. The antioxidant activity showed IC50 values ranged between 417.61 - >2000μg/mL and 495.6 - >2000μg/mL for DPPH and ABTS assay respectively. The cytotoxicity assay showed LC50 ranged between 26.47 to 93.64 μg/mL against Vero cells and 74.29 to 225.40 μg/mL against C3A. The results of this study show that the essential oils from the gall of P. atlantica have low toxicity and moderate activity against fast growing M. smegmatis and M. aurum.Conclusion: These results substantiate their potential as used in the treatment of non-tuberculous mycobacterial infections. This finding is predictive of their activity against M. tuberculosis, therefore, further study might be considered to investigate the activity against pathogenic Mycobacterium strains.Key words: Pistacia atlantica, Essential oil, Antimycobacterial, Antioxidant, Cytotoxicity

Effect of Rhizobium Isolates on Isoflavonoid Levels in Chickpea Plants Infected with Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceris

The aim of the present studies was to determine the effect of two biocontrol agents, belonging to the genus Rhizobium, PchDMS and Pch43, on the accumulation of soluble phenolic compounds, and particularly constitutive isoflavonoids, in chickpea roots infected with Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris (Foc), the causal agent of Fusarium wilt of chickpea. Pretreatment of roots with the bacterial isolates before challenge with Foc significantly increased levels of soluble phenolic compounds in both the susceptible ILC482 and the moderately resistant INRAT87/ 1 chickpea cultivars. High performance liquid chromatography analysis revealed the isoflavones biochanin A and formononetin in the chickpea roots, in both the free and the glycosidically bound forms. Bacterization of the roots with Rhizobium isolates before challenge with Foc increased levels of these isoflavones in plant roots. The antifungal activity of crude phenolics extracted from the chickpea roots was tested in vitro on PDA amended with various concentrations of these extracts and inoculated with Foc. Crude phenolics significantly reduced fungal growth and caused considerable morphological changes in the mycelium, including marked cellular disorganization

Study of temperature variation effect on the thermoelectric properties of a thermoelectric generator with BiCuseO molecules

Thermoelectric-power generation poses challenges, which are of fundamental and technological nature. Increasing thermoelectric efficiency for work, the therme of the associated policy, has encountered problems related, for example, to heat recovery and conversion to electricity. It is widely recognized that the augmentation of efficient electromechanical systems as a strategic subject of applied study in light of problems related, for example, to waste heat recuperation and conversion to electricity. This results in an abundant literature on the subject. Recent advances in the technological development of TEGs are based on advances in materials science: new materials and new techniques for the production of specific structures have made it possible to improve device performance through the characterization and optimization of their thermal and electrical transport properties. This paper presents a simulation study on the effect of temperature variation on a thermoelectric generator at the base of BiCuSeO, using the mathematical method of the finite element model