Chemical profile, biological activities, and molecular docking of Algerian Juniperus phoenicea berries

Main Article Content

Abderrezak Bouchareb
Abdelhak Djemel
Imededdine Kadi
Amar DJemoui
Chawki Bensouici
Maria Atanassova
Abdelhalim Zoukel
Mokhtar Benmohamed
Sheikh F. Ahmad
Sabry M. Attia
Farouk Benaceur
Wafa Zahnit
Mohammed Messaoudi

Keywords

α-amylase assay; anti-oxidant assays; essential oil; Juniperus phoenicea L berries; molecular docking; non-polar extracts

Abstract

The chemical composition, antioxidant activities, and α-amylase enzyme inhibitory activity of Algerian Juniperus phoenicea L berries were quantitatively and qualitatively determined in this study. Essential oil (EO) and non-polar crude extracts from cyclohexane and ethyl acetate were prepared, and the chemical profile was determined using GC-MS technique. The predominant compound in the EO was α-pinene (76.03%), while communic acid (23.66% and 22.38%) was the main compound in both non-polar crude extracts. The antioxidant potential of the samples was evaluated using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,20-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonicacid)-diammonium salt (ABTS), and phenanthroline. All samples showed weak antioxidant capacity. The antidiabetic effect was assessed in vitro using the α-amylase assay; a strong inhibitory effect against the  α-amylase enzyme was detected for both cyclohexane and ethyl acetate extracts with IC50 (IC50 = 186.91 ± 5.74 mg/mL and IC50 = 351.48 ± 0.17 mg/mL, respectively). Finally, an in silico study was performed for both α-amylase and α-glucosidase proteins to enhance our outcomes.

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