In our study, a series of new harmine derivatives has been prepared by cycloaddition reaction using various arylnitrile oxides and evaluated in vitro against acetylcholinesterase and 5-lipoxygenase enzymes, MCF7 and HCT116 cancer cell lines. Some of these molecules have been shown to be potent inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase and MCF7 cell line. The greatest activity against acetylcholinesterase (IC50 = 10.4 µM) was obtained for harmine 1 and cytotoxic activities (IC50 = 0.2 µM) for compound 3a. Two derivatives 3e and 3f with the thiophene and furan systems, respectively, showed good activity against 5- lipoxygenase enzyme (IC50 = 29.2 and 55.5 µM, respectively).

Essential oil of the seeds from the endemic Tunisian plant Ferula tunetana Pomel ex Batt. was analyzed for its chemical composition and screened for its antimicrobial, antioxidant and antigerminative properties. The chemical composition of the isolated oil is reported for the first time. According to the GC/FID, GC/MS and C-NMR analysis results; 18 compounds were identified accounting for 84.6% of the total oil. The chemical composition of this essential oil was characterized by the presence of a high proportion of monoterpene hydrocarbons (77.3%) followed by oxygenated sesquiterpenes (4.1%) and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (3.2%). α-Pinene (39.8%), β-pinene (11.5%) and (Z)-β-ocimene (7.5%) were the predominant compounds. Moreover, the isolated oil was tested for its antimicrobial activity using the disc-diffusion and the microdilution assays against six Gram-positive and five Gram-negative bacteria as well as towards two Candida species. The isolated oil was tested also for its antioxidant activity against DPPH, ABTS, O2∙ and hydrogen peroxide (H O ), and for its antigerminative potential. It was found that it exhibited interesting antimicrobial activity against Salmonella typhimurium LT2 DT104 (inhibition zone (IZ) 16.2 ± 1.0 mm) and Bacillus cereus ATCC 14579 (IZ 15.8 ± 1.0 mm). However, it exerted a moderate antioxidant activity against H O (IC 78.2 ± 2.98 μg/ml) and towards O2∙ (IC 89.2 ± 3.82 μg/ml). The antigerminative effect of this oil was also evaluated in this work. Results showed a toxic effect.