There is a great scientific curiosity to discover all environments sheltering microalgae, especially those with exceptional characteristics from coldest to hottest ones, the purpose remains to explore the potential of the native microalgae flora and the research for new bioactive compounds. This study aimed to isolate a polysaccharide-producing microalga from an extreme ecosystem and to evaluate its capacity to inhibit the α-d-glucosidase enzyme. Chlorella strain is isolated from hypersaline Lake in the Algerian desert. The exopolysaccharide extraction was performed by the concentration of free-cell supernatant in a rotary evaporator. The infrared analysis showed a characteristic footprint of carbohydrates with particular functional groups, such as sulfate. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry has revealed a hetero-exopolysaccharide composed of galactose 35.75%, glucose 21.13%, xylose 16.81%, fructose 6.96%, arabinose 5.10%, and glucuronic acid 2.68%. The evaluation of the anti-hyperglycemic activity demonstrated a significant α-d-glucosidase inhibition of 80.94 ± 0.01% at 10 mg mL⁻¹ with IC₅₀ equal to 4.31 ± 0.20 mg mL⁻¹. This study opens a vast prospect to use exopolysaccharides as natural nutraceutical or food additive. Graphical Abstract

Injury by scorpion sting envenoming is a serious health problem, especially in rural areas. This paper offers an inventory of the plants used for treating scorpion sting in Algerian Septentrional Sahara. An ethnobotanical survey was undertaken in El Oued, Ghardaïa and Ouargla. The interviews, using semi-structured interviews with 360 people of different ethnic groups, were analysed with quantitative tools: Relative frequency of citation (RFC), Use value (UV), Informant consensus factor (Fic), Jaccard index (JI) and Chi² test. Results show that the local populations use 53 plants belonging to 34 families for the scorpion sting treatment; Asteraceae and Lamiaceae are dominant. The most used part of the plants was leaves (23 species) and the most used method of preparation was the paste (23.26%). The highest RFC and Fic were recorded for Retama raetam (RFC = 0.46; Fic = 0.69). Among 101 remedy recipes, 69.31% of recipes were used externally in the scorpion envenomation treatment.

Quinoa is an annual pseudocereal highly adapted to extreme environments and has become, at this point in time, an extremely popular food due to its exceptional and high nutritional quality. This study aims to investigate the association of quinoa salt tolerance at an early developmental stage with its grain nutritional value under the effect of severe climatic hurdles. The current findings revealed a significant variability between genotypes in salt response attributes at the first development stage, where genotypes Amarilla Sacaca (thereafter, A. Sacaca) and QQ57 exhibited high salt tolerance thresholds with a low salt sensitivity index (SI), and a high capacity for Na⁺ sequestration into vacuoles. A significant positive association was detected between salt tolerance degree and yield parameters, saponins (SAPs), and minerals contents, where genotype A. Sacaca exhibited the highest SAP content with 3.84 mg.g⁻¹ and the highest amounts of K, Ca, P, and Fe. The analysis of fatty acid composition demonstrated a high significant negative correlation between crude fat content and salt SI, and between yield parameters. Despite its low harvest index (HI) and low seed oil content, the salt-tolerant genotype A. Sacaca showed a high nutritional quality for seed oil according to its lowest ω6/ω3 ratio (5.6/1) and lowest level of atherogenicity index (AI). The genotype 115R, defined as the most sensitive to salt stress, exhibited a high seed oil quality due to its low lipid peroxidation susceptibility as reflected by its oxidative susceptibility and peroxidizability indexes. The significance of this study includes the identification of valuable quinoa genotypes showing high efficiency in growth and yield under severe stress accompanied by a high nutritional value satisfying the market requirements for healthy, nutritious, and safe food products.