This study is designed to examine the chemical composition and antioxidant activity of the essential oil of Juniperus phoenicea L. ripe and unripe berries. GC and GC/MS analyses resulted in the detection of 42 components representing approximately 96.50–99.57% of the oils. Major components of the oils were α-pinene (58.61–77.39%), camphene (0.67–9.31%), δ-3-carene (0–10.01%) and trans-verbenol (0–5.24%). Antioxidant activities were determined by two different test systems, DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activities. In both systems ripe berries exhibited better activity potential than the unripe ones.

This study is outlined to probe the chemical composition of essential oil and in vitro antioxidant activity of Juniperus oxycedrus ssp. macrocarpa (S. & m.) Ball. and Juniperus oxycedrus L. ssp. rufescens (L. K.) berries, collected from four sites, according to their maturity phase. The chemical composition of the hydrodistilled essential oil was analysed by GC-MS. Forty-eight compounds were identified, accounting for approximately 79.8–98.9% of the oil. The main constituents were α-pinene, germacrene D, myrcene, abietadiene and cis-calamenene, their mean percentage vary according to their phenological stage. The antioxidant activity of the samples was determined by the ABTS and DPPH radical scavenging activities. Hawaria essential oil extracted from mature berries showed the highest antioxidant capacity.

Fruits of Laurus nobilis L. growing wild in different stations of Tunisia and Algeria were analysed for their fixed oil and essential oil composition. Fixed oil was extracted in Soxhlet apparatus by using hexane as solvent. The yield values were found approximatively the same for the fruit of the different stations. Fatty acids composition of the fixed oil was determined by using combined techniques of HPLC and GC. Fatty acids composition of L. nobilis were found as 54 % for satured fatty acids and 46 %for unsatured acids. Essential oils, isolated by hydrodistillation, from different parts of the berries (seeds and pericarp) of L. nobilis were analyzed by GC-MS and the main components were: 1,8-cineole, (E) β-ocimene, α-terpinyl acetate, α-pinene, β-pinene and β-longipinene. The yields in essential oil range between 0.6 - 1.2 % by weight for seeds and 0.8 -1 .1 % for pericarps. Study of the chemical composition indicate a small variability of the volatile oil and fixed oil between the different stations whereas big differences in the composition was observed for the seeds and pericarp.