The study of bioactive molecules of natural origin is a focus of current research. Thymus algeriensis and Artemisia herba-alba are two medicinal plants widely used by the Moroccan population in the traditional treatment of several pathologies linked to inflammation. This study aimed to evaluate the single and combined antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of the essential oils extracted from these two medicinal plants, and also their potential toxicity. Essential oils were extracted using hydro-distillation in a Clevenger-type apparatus. The antioxidant activity was evaluated by two methods: the scavenging of the free radical DPPH, and the reduction in iron. Anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated by evaluating the edema development induced by carrageenan injecting, while the analgesic power was evaluated according to the number of abdominal contortions induced by the intraperitoneal injection of acetic acid (0.7%). The acute oral toxicity was performed to assess the potential toxicity of the studied EOs, followed by an analysis of the blood biochemical parameters. The results of the two antioxidant tests indicated that our extract mixture exhibits good iron reduction capacity and very interesting DPPH free radical scavenging power, with an IC₅₀ of around 4.38 ± 0.98 μg/mL higher than that of the benchmark antioxidant, BHT. The anti-inflammatory test demonstrated that the mixture administered orally at a dose of 150 mg/kg has a better activity, exceeding that of 1% Diclofenac, with a percentage of maximum inhibition of the edema of 89.99 ± 4.08. The number of cramps in the mice treated with the mixture at a dose of 150 mg/kg is significantly lower (29.80 ± 1.92) than those of the group treated with Tramadol (42.00 ± 2.70), respectively. The toxicity results show no signs of toxicity with an LD₅₀ greater than 150 mg/Kg. These interesting results show that the two plants’ EOs had an important anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and antioxidant activity, and also a powerful synergistic effect, which encourages further in-depth investigations on their pharmacological proprieties.

Essential oils (EOs) are chemical products produced by odoriferous glands from a variety of plants. These essential oils have many health benefits: antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activities. So due to these medicinal properties, the present study was designed to analyze essential oils of Thymus zygis L. and Thymus willdenowii Boiss. for their chemical composition and biological activities. These two thyme species were collected from the region of Ifrane, Middle Atlas of Morocco. The EO was obtained by hydrodistillation, and the yields were 5.25% for T. zygis and 3.00% for T. willdenowii. The chemical composition of the EOs was analyzed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and the results showed that T. zygis EO is dominated by carvacrol (52.5%), o-cymene (23.14%), and thymol (9.68%), while the EO of T. willdenowii contains germacrene D (16.51%), carvacrol (16.19%), and geranyl acetate (8.35%) as major compounds. The antioxidant activity assessed by Diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays revealed that both EOs have excellent antioxidant activities; by DPPH it resulted in IC₅₀ = 6.13 ± 0.11 for T. zygis and 6.78 ± 0.3 µg/mL for T. willdenowii, while the one by FRAP yielded EC₅₀ = 2.46 ± 0.01 (T. zygis) and 5.17 ± 0.2 (T. willdenowii) µg/mL. The antimicrobial activity of the two essential oils was evaluated against six bacterial strains and five fungal strains by the disk diffusion method to determine the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) and Minimum Fungicidal Concentration (MFC). The EOs revealed variable antimicrobial activities against the different tested microbial strains and showed strong antimicrobial activities, even against strains known as multi-resistant to antibiotics (Acinetobacter baumannii) at low concentrations (2 µL/mL). T. zygis EO showed the most powerful activity against all the studied bacteria, while that of T. willdenowii recorded moderate activity when tested against Shigella dysenteriae and Salmonella Typhi. With inhibition diameters that vary between 75 mm and 84 mm for concentrations of 2 µL/mL up to 12 µL/mL, S. aureus was shown to be the most sensitive to T. zygis EO. For the antifungal activity test, T. zygis EO showed the best inhibition diameters compared to T. willdenowii EO. These results showed that T. zygis EO has more powerful antioxidant and antimicrobial activities than T. willdenowii EO, therefore, we deduce that thyme EOs are excellent antioxidants, they have strong antimicrobial properties, and may in the future represent new sources of natural antiseptics that can be used in pharmaceutical and food industry.

Citrus fruits and juices have been studied extensively for their potential involvement in the prevention of various diseases. Flavanones, the characteristic polyphenols of citrus species, are the primarily compounds responsible for these studied health benefits. Using in silico and in vitro methods, we are exploring the possible antidiabetic action of narirutin, a flavanone family member. The goal of the in silico research was to anticipate how narirutin would interact with eight distinct receptors implicated in diabetes control and complications, namely, dipeptidyl-peptidase 4 (DPP4), protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B), free fatty acid receptor 1 (FFAR1), aldose reductase (AldR), glycogen phosphorylase (GP), alpha-amylase (AAM), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ), alpha-glucosidase (AGL), while the in vitro study looked into narirutin’s possible inhibitory impact on alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase. The results indicate that the studied citrus flavanone interacted remarkably with most of the receptors and had an excellent inhibitory activity during the in vitro tests suggesting its potent role among the different constituent of the citrus compounds in the management of diabetes and also its complications.

The Pipper nigram (P. nigram) leaf extract was used for the biosynthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) and the successful formation of the resultant product was confirmed through several physicochemical techniques. The chemical structure and the elemental composition were analysed through Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopies, respectively. The crystalline structure and crystallite size were investigated through an X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and a monoclinic crystallite with a size of 40.68 nm was reported. Even-distributed particles with an average particle size of 49.75 nm were seen in the scanning electron micrograph (SEM), whereas the thermal stability was checked during the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The ultra-violet and visible (UV-Visible) spectroscopy was operated to study the light absorbance phenomena and to determine the band gap energy from the absorption edge, which was found to be 1.47 eV. The CuO NPs were used as antibacterial agents against gram-negative bacteria (GNB) and gram-positive bacteria (GPB), and greater inhibition zones were seen against the former one. The antioxidant test was also carried out against 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) free radicals and the antioxidant potential of CuO NPs was found to be higher than ascorbic acid.

Centaurea parviflora (C. parviflora), belonging to the family Asteraceae, is an Algerian medicinal plant used in folk medicine to treat different diseases related to hyperglycemic and inflammatory disorders, as well as in food. The present study aimed to assess the total phenolic content, in vitro antioxidant and antimicrobial activity and phytochemical profile of the extracts of C. parviflora. The extraction of phenolic compounds from aerial parts was conducted using solvents of increasing polarity starting from methanol, resulting in crude extract (CE), to chloroform extract (CHE), ethyl acetate extract (EAE) and butanol extract (BUE). The total phenolic, flavonoid and flavonol contents of the extracts were determined using the Folin–Ciocalteu and AlCl₃ methods, respectively. The antioxidant activity was measured with seven methods: 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay, galvinoxyl free-radical-scavenging test, 2,2′-Azino-Bis(3-Ethylbenzothiazoline-6-Sulfonic Acid) (ABTS) assay, cupric reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC), reducing power, Fe⁺²-phenanthroline reduction assay and superoxide-scavenging test. The disc-diffusion method aimed at testing the sensitivity of bacterial strains toward our extracts. A qualitative analysis with thin-layer chromatography of the methanolic extract was performed. Moreover, HPLC-DAD-MS was used to establish the phytochemical profile of the BUE. The BUE was found to contain high amounts of total phenolics (175.27 ± 2.79 µg GAE/mg E), flavonoids (59.89 ± 0.91 µg QE/mg E) and flavonols (47.30 ± 0.51 µg RE/mg E). Using TLC, different components such as flavonoids and polyphenols were noted. The highest radical-scavenging ability was recorded for the BUE against DPPH (IC₅₀ = 59.38 ± 0.72 µg/mL), galvinoxyl (IC₅₀ = 36.25 ± 0.42 µg/mL), ABTS (IC₅₀ = 49.52 ± 1.54 µg/mL) and superoxide (IC₅₀ = 13.61 ± 0.38 µg/mL). The BUE had the best reducing power according to the CUPRAC (A_0.5 = 71.80 ± 1.22 μg/mL), phenanthroline test (A_0.5 = 20.29 ± 1.16 μg/mL) and FRAP (A_0.5 = 119.17 ± 0.29 μg/mL). The LC-MS analysis of BUE allowed us to identify eight compounds including six phenolic acids and two flavonoids: quinic acid, five chlorogenic acid derivatives, rutin and quercetin 3-o-glucoside. This preliminary investigation revealed that the extracts of C. parviflora have a good biopharmaceutical activity. The BUE possesses an interesting potential for pharmaceutical/nutraceutical applications.

Background/Objectives: Oncogenic KRAS drives ~30% of solid tumours, yet the only approved G12C-specific drugs benefit ≈ 13% of KRAS-mutant patients, leaving a major clinical gap. We sought mutation-agnostic natural ligands from Ziziphus lotus, whose stereochemically rich phenolics may overcome this limitation by occupying the SI/II (Switch I/Switch II) groove and locking KRAS in its inactive state. Methods: Phytochemical mining yielded five recurrent phenolics, such as (+)-catechin, hyperin, astragalin, eriodictyol, and the prenylated benzoate amorfrutin A, benchmarked against the covalent inhibitor sotorasib. An in silico cascade combined SI/II docking, multi-parameter ADME/T (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion, and Toxicity) filtering, and 100 ns explicit solvent molecular dynamics simulations. Pharmacokinetic modelling predicted oral absorption, Lipinski compliance, mutagenicity, and acute-toxicity class. Results: Hyperin and astragalin showed the strongest non-covalent affinities (−8.6 kcal mol⁻¹) by forging quadridentate hydrogen-bond networks that bridge the P-loop (Asp30/Glu31) to the α3-loop cleft (Asp119/Ala146). Catechin (−8.5 kcal mol⁻¹) balanced polar anchoring with entropic economy. ADME ranked amorfrutin A the highest for predicted oral absorption (93%) but highlighted lipophilic solubility limits; glycosylated flavonols breached Lipinski rules yet remained non-mutagenic with class-5 acute-toxicity liability. Molecular dynamics trajectories confirmed that hyperin clamps the SI/II groove, suppressing loop RMSF below 0.20 nm and maintaining backbone RMSD stability, whereas astragalin retains pocket residence with transient re-orientation. Conclusions: Hyperin emerges as a low-toxicity, mutation-agnostic scaffold that rigidifies inactive KRAS. Deglycosylation, nano-encapsulation, or soft fluorination could reconcile permeability with durable target engagement, advancing Z. lotus phenolics toward broad-spectrum KRAS therapeutics.