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Quercus afares, an endemic North African species that combines morphological, physiological and ecological traits ecological traits of both Quercus suber and Quercus canariensis, two distant species is presented. Two Quercus afares populations of both Quercus suber nad Quercus canariensis sampled both within and outside areas where these species overlap with Quercus afares is studied.

Hybridisation is a potent force in plant evolution, although there are few reported examples of stabilised species that have been created through homoploid hybridisation. We focus here on Quercus afares, an endemic North African species that combines morphological, physiological and ecological traits of both Q. suber and Q. canariensis, two phylogenetically distant species. These two species are sympatric with Q. afares over most of its distribution. We studied two Q. afares populations (one from Algeria and one from Tunisia), as well as several populations of both Q. suber and Q. canariensis sampled both within and outside areas where these species overlap with Q. afares. A genetic analysis was conducted using both nuclear (allozymes) and chloroplastic markers, which shows that Q. afares originates from a Q. suber × Q. canariensis hybridisation. At most loci, Q. afares predominantly possesses alleles from Q. suber, suggesting that the initial cross between Q. suber and Q. canariensis was followed by backcrossing with Q. suber. Other hypotheses that can account for this result, including genetic drift, gene silencing, gene conversion and selection, are discussed. A single Q. suber chlorotype was detected, and all Q. afares individuals displayed this chlorotype, indicating that Q. suber was the maternal parent. Q. afares is genetically, morphologically and ecologically differentiated from its parental species, and can therefore be considered as a stabilised hybrid species.Heredity (2006) 96, 175–184. doi:10.1038/sj.hdy.6800782; published online 21 December 2005 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammation and oxidative stress are two interconnected processes that play a role in cancer development and progression. In the present research, we aimed to evaluate the anticancer effect of Pistacia lentiscus L. (PL) essential oil (EO) in vitro against MCF-7 breast cancer cells and in vivo in DMBA-mammary cancer induction on female C57BL/6 mice model as well as to investigate its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant potential as implicated mechanism. Our results revealed a new chemotypes-profile of 39 bio-compounds of PL EO. The main chemotypes were terpenoid and ketone compounds. In vitro, PL EO had a potent anti-proliferative activity against MCF-7 cells. In vivo, PL reduced the tumor number, volume, weight and burden values as compared to the DMBA-positive control group (p<0.05). Histopathology data confirmed the protective effect of PL traduced by the presence of necrosis area. PL EO revealed improvement on inflammatory perturbation in the C-RP levels and the complete blood cell count. Finally, PL improved oxidative disorders of lipid peroxidation, thiol groups, hydrogen peroxide and antioxidant enzymes depletion in plasma and mammary tissues. Also, a potent plasma scavenging capacity has been detected. Our data suggested that PL chemotypes inhibited cell proliferation, exerting a potential protective effect against DMBA-mammary cancer through anti-inflammatory and antioxidant enhancements. Targeting inflammation and oxidative stress may represent a promising strategy for breast cancer prevention and treatment., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2024 Abidi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Diarrhea is a multifactorial gastrointestinal disorder responsible for about 5 million deaths annually. The chemical composition, the antioxidant activity of Crataegus azarolus berries aqueous extract (CABAE) as well as its protective effects against castor oil-induced diarrhea, oxidative stress, and inflammation in rat were studied., Methods: Sixty male rats were used and divided into six groups of ten animals in each: Control (C), castor oil (CO), CO+various doses of CABAE (100, 200, and 400 mg/kg b.w., p.o.), and CO+loperamide (LOP, 10 mg/kg b.w., p.o.)., Key Results: The CABAE showed relatively high levels of total polyphenols, flavonoids, and tannins. The LC-HRESIMS technique allowed the identification of 5 phenolic compounds and the major component is quinic acid. In vivo studies showed that CABAE protected against castor oil-induced diarrhea and intestinal fluid accumulation. The CABAE counteracted castor oil-induced lipoperoxidation, preserved GSH and thiol groups levels, and prevented the depletion of antioxidant enzyme activities, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx). The CABAE administration also protected against castor oil-induced inflammatory markers (ALP and CRP) increase. More importantly, castor oil induced an increase of intracellular mediators, such as hydrogen peroxide, free iron, and calcium, while CABAE pretreatment significantly reversed them to near control levels., Conclusion: The Crataegus azarolus berries aqueous extract significantly protected against diarrhea due in part to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties., (© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The present study was carried out to determine the phytochemical composition of Salvia officinalis flowers decoction extract (SOFDE) as well as its individual and/or synergistic actions with sulfasalazine against ethanol (EtOH)-induced peptic ulcer in Wistar rats. In this respect, rats were divided into six groups of eight animals each: control, EtOH, EtOH + sulfasalazine (SULF, 100 mg kg -1 , b.w., p.o.), mixture: MIX (SOFDE, 50 mg kg -1 b.w., p.o. + SULF, 50 mg kg -1 , b.w., p.o.) and EtOH + two doses of SOFDE (100 and 200 mg kg -1 b.w., p.o.). In vitro , the phytochemical and the antioxidant properties were determined using colorimetric analysis. HPLC-PDA/ESI-MS assay was used to identify the distinctive qualitative profile of phenolic compounds. Our results firstly indicated that SOFDE is rich in total tannins, flavonols, anthocyanins and a moderate concentration of total carotenoids. Chromatographic techniques allowed the identification of 13 phenolic compounds and the major ones are quinic acid, protocatechuic acid, gallic acid and salviolinic acid. SOFDE also exhibited an important in vitro antioxidant activity using the β-carotene bleaching method. In vivo , SOFDE and the mixture provide significant protection against ethanol-induced gastric and duodenal macroscopic and histological alterations. Also, SOFDE alone or in combination with SULF, showed a significant protection against the secretory profile disturbances, lipid peroxidation, antioxidant enzyme activities and non-enzymatic antioxidant level depletion induced by alcohol administration. Importantly, we showed that EtOH acute intoxication increased gastric and intestinal calcium, free iron, magnesium and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) levels, while SOFDE/MIX treatment protected against all these intracellular mediators' deregulation. We also showed that alcohol treatment significantly increased the C-reactive protein (CRP) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities in plasma. The SOFDE and MIX treatment significantly protected against alcohol-induced inflammation. More importantly, we showed in the present work that the mixture exerted a more important effect than SOFDE and SULF each alone indicating a possible synergism between these two molecules. In conclusion, our data suggests that SOFDE and SULF exerted a potential synergistic protective effect against all the macroscopic, histological and biochemical disturbances induced by EtOH intoxication. This protection might be related in part to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties as well as by negatively regulating Fenton reaction components such as H 2 O 2 and free iron., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

In the current study, the phenolic composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of extracts from Rubus ulmifolius Schott leaves harvested in four localities (Sejnen, Tabarka, Faija and Ain drahem) in Tunisia were investigated for the first time. Great differences were found for the chemical composition, total phenol contents and biological activities among the evaluated extracts. HPLC analysis of methanolic extracts showed that the dominant compounds were kaempferol 3-O-rutinoside and naringenine. In addition, significant correlations were observed between antioxidant activities and phenolic contents. In fact, leaves collected from Sejnen presented higher total phenol content (53.32 mg GAE/g DW) and antioxidant activities (IC 50 = 39.40 mg/l) than the others samples. All extracts showed significant antimicrobial activity against six used bacteria with the inhibition zones diameters and minimal inhibitory concentration values were in the range of 8 - 16 mm and 6.25 - 25 mg/ml, respectively. The highest antimicrobial activities were recorded in Sejnen extract against Gram-positive bacteria., (© 2017 Wiley-VHCA AG, Zurich, Switzerland.)

Squirting cucumber (Ecballium elaterium), is an indigenous species of the south of Europe and the Mediterranean basin, sometimes cultivated for its use as a medicinal plant. This study compared phenolic contents in Ecballium elaterium organs and their antimicrobial activities against some foodborne pathogens. Our results indicated that the plant organs had different total polyphenol contents (ranging from 6.744 to 46.848 mg GAE g(-1) DW) the leaves and fruits contained about 6-fold higher phenol contents than the root. The same tendency was observed for flavonoid and tannin levels. An interesting antimicrobial activity was also observed against the food pathogens at concentrations ranging from 0.004 to 2.5 mg ml(-1). Ecballium elaterium extracts might therefore be a potential source of preservative candidates for use in food or pharmaceutical industries.

The essential oils isolated from leaves, wood, and cones of the Tunisian endemic cypress Cupressus sempervirens L. var. numidica Trab. collected from three natural populations were characterized by GC-FID and GC/MS analyses. In the wood, leaf, and cone oils, 38, 35, and 26 constituents, representing 94.4, 97.8, and 98.5% of the total oil composition, respectively, were identified. Monoterpenes constituted the major fraction of the oils from all organs and for all populations. The oils were found to be of an α-pinene (64.2%)/δ-car-3-ene (11.1%) chemotype with considerable contents of α-humulene (3.4%) in the leaf oil, cedrol (2.8%) in the wood oil, and sabinene (3.2%) in the cone oil, respectively. α-Pinene, δ-car-3-ene, limonene, carvacrol methyl ether, α-humulene, and α-amorphene were the main components that differentiated the oils of the three organs in the cypress of Makthar., (Copyright © 2013 Verlag Helvetica Chimica Acta AG, Zürich.)

This immunocytochemical study focused on the role of fetal gonads in the regulation of gonadotrope cell populations in the fetal sheep pituitary in late gestation. Male and female sheep fetuses were castrated at 112-115 days of gestation and maintained in utero until 139-140 days gestation when their pituitaries were collected. Intact twins served as controls. The percentages of the different gonadotrope cell populations (i.e. the number of gonadotrope cells vs. the total number of the pituitary cell counted) and the mean cell area were determined. Castration did not affect the LH cell percentage in either sex but resulted in a decrease in the individual LH cell areas of both males and females (46.4 +/- 0.6 vs. 51.6 +/- 0.4 microns 2, p < 0.01, in males and 43.0 +/- 0.5 vs. 50.0 +/- 1.1 microns 2, p < 0.01, in females). By contrast, the FSH cell percentage was increased about twofold in castrated fetuses when compared to intact animals (3.5 +/- 0.3 vs. 1.6 +/- 0.3, p < 0.01, in males and 2.3 +/- 0.1 vs. 1.1 +/- 0.3, p < 0.02, in females). Moreover, castrated males had higher FSH cell percentages than castrated females (p < 0.02). The individual FSH cell area was smaller in castrated fetuses than that in controls (44.7 +/- 1.4 vs. 51.2 +/- 1.4 microns 2, p < 0.05, in males and 42.1 +/- 0.8 vs. 51.6 +/- 0.8 microns 2, p < 0.01, in females).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

In this immunocytochemical study, heterogeneity in the storage of gonadotropins in the sheep fetus was investigated. LH cells were first detected at 50 days of gestation, whereas FSH and LH-FSH cells were observed from Day 89 on; no gonadotropes containing ACTH were observed. LH cell percentage increased for both sexes between 99 and 120 days of gestation (from 2.8 +/- 0.1 to 4.0 +/- 0.3), remained high until term, and did not change after birth. In males, FSH cell percentages increased about twofold between 120 and 130 days to 4.0 +/- 0.4, fell at 140 days to 1.6 +/- 0.1, and then increased in the newborn lambs about twofold. A similar pattern of development was observed in females, but the percentages were lower than in males. LH-FSH cell percentages increased about twofold in males between 99 and 120 days of gestation to 1.1 +/- 0.1, decreased to 0.8 +/- 0.1 at 140 days, then increased about twofold in newborn lambs. In the 99-day-old females, this percentage was 0.5 +/- 0.1; it remained stable between 99 days of fetal life and term and did not change after birth. Hence, the pattern of change in the percentages of these cells appeared to be similar to that of LH cells and different from that of FSH cells. This suggests that LH-FSH cells might result from a shift of monohormonal cells to bihormonal cells. However, these cells seem to be regulated differently in male and female fetuses, and this suggests that they possess a specific role during ontogenesis.