Trachyspermum ammi (Apiaceae) is a plant with a good reputation in the traditional Persian and Ajurvedic medicine. The hydrodistilled essential oil from the fruits of T. ammi, known as ‘ajwain oil’, is used in countries like Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India in the preparation of curry, to flavor several foods, as preservative, and in perfumery. At therapeutic level, ajwain oil is employed in the treatment of gastrointestinal ailments, lack of appetite and bronchial problems. In the present work, the essential oil of T. ammi growing in Iran was analysed by GC-FID and GC-MS showing thymol (67.4%), p-cymene (17.9%) and γ-terpinene (11.3%) as the major constituents. Afterwards, we investigated the biological effects displayed by ajwain oil, namely the antimicrobial and antioxidant activity, the cytotoxicity on tumor cells, and the induction of lymphocyte proliferation. In addition, the inhibition on nicotinate mononucleotide adenylyltransferase (NadD), which is a promising new target for developing novel antibiotics, was evaluated. The antimicrobial effects of ajwain oil, measured by the agar disc diffusion method, were relevant, with inhibition zones higher than those of reference antibiotics, especially on S. aureus and C. albicans (34.7 and 54.3 mm, respectively). This effect was not due to the enzymatic inhibition on NadD. The ajwain oil exhibited a considerable dose-dependent inhibition on the ABTS radical cation, with an IC50 value of 22.4 µg/mL. MTT assay revealed that ajwain oil is particularly cytotoxic on colon carcinoma cells, with a IC50 value of 9.6 µg/mL. Finally, PBMC proliferation assay revealed some role for the ajwain oil within the network of interactions of the cells of the immune system

This study was undertaken to assess the antioxidant and antiproliferative potential of the essential oil of Hypericum hircinum L. subsp. majus (Aiton) N. Robson. Analysis of the oil composition revealed that sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (69.3%) dominate, cis-β-guaiene, δ-selinene and (E)-caryophyllene being the most representative. Significant values of antioxidant activity were found using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging assays. The essential oil revealed antiproliferative activity as evaluated on human glioblastoma (T98G), human prostatic adenocarcinoma (PC3), human squamous carcinoma (A431) and mouse melanoma (B16-F1) tumour cell lines by MTT assay.

The new series of silver(I) coordination polymers [Ag(N–N)(μ-PTA)]_n(X)_n (1, 2, 4–8, 10, 11) and discrete monomers [Ag(N–N)(PTA)₂](X) (3, 9) {N–N = bpy (1–3), dtbpy (4), neocup (5, 6), phen (7–9), dione (10, 11); X = NO₃ (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10), PF₆ (2, 4, 6, 8, 11)} were generated by self-assembly reactions, in MeOH at ∼25 °C, of AgNO₃ or AgPF₆ with 1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphaadamantane (PTA) and the corresponding polypyridines, namely 2,2′-bipyridine (bpy), 4,4′-di-tert-butyl-2,2′-bipyridine (dtbpy), 1,10-phenanthroline (phen), 2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline (neocup) and 1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione (dione). The compounds were obtained as air and light stable solids and characterized by IR, ¹H and ³¹P{¹H} NMR spectroscopy, ESI⁺-MS and elemental analyses. The crystal structure of 1 was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis, revealing infinite one-dimensional (1D) linear chains driven by μ-PTA N,P-linkers. Apart from representing the first examples of the metal–PTA derivatives bearing polypyridine ligands, 1–11 also feature solubility in water (S_25°C ≈ 4–18 mg mL⁻¹). Selected compounds (1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 10) were thus tested for their biological properties and found to exhibit significant antibacterial and antifungal activities, screened in vitro against the standard strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus sanguinis, Staphylococcus mutans, Enterococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans. Furthermore, the compounds 5, 7, 9 and 10 show a pronounced antiproliferative activity against human malignant melanoma (A375), and the effects on the inhibition of tumor cells in vitro are in agreement with the DNA-binding studies.

Objective: Kundmannia sicula is an herbaceous plant belonging to the family Apiaceae and is distributed in the Mediterranean coastal areas where it occurs in arid places. In this work, we have analysed the essential oil distilled from the aerial parts of K. sicula from Sicily (Italy) and its biological activity. Methods: GC-MS was used to analyze the chemical composition, whereas its antioxidant capacity and cytotoxicity on three human tumour cells (A375, MDA MB-231 and HCT 116) were evaluated by DPPH, ABTS, FRAP and MTT methods, respectively. Result: The essential oil resulted very rich of the sesquiterpene hydrocarbon germacrene D (81.2%). Moreover, the K. sicula oil displayed relevant scavenging activity towards the ABTS radical (IC₅₀ values of 14.5 μg/ml) and noteworthy antiproliferative effects on tumour cell lines (IC₅₀ values in the range 21.59–31.94 μg/ml). Conclusion: Results of this study may support uses of K. sicula as a natural source of germacrene D to be exploited on an industrial level.