In this work, we have assessed the composition and the biological activities of essential oils (EO) extracted from L. stoechas collected from 11 locations in northern Algeria. The oils were analyzed by GC/FID and GC/MS. A total of 121 compounds were identified that accounted for 69.88-91.2 % of the total oil contents. Major components were fenchone (11.27-37.48 %), camphor (1.94-21.8 %), 1,8-cineol (0.16-8.71 %) and viridiflorol (2.89-7.38 %). In vitro biological activities demonstrated that the DPPH-based radical scavenging and the β-carotene/linoleic acid-based lipid anti-oxidation activities differed by an 8 fold factor and were linked to different sets of molecules in different EOs. Our 11 EOs exhibited good antimicrobial activities against most of the 16 tested strains of pathogenic bacteria, filamentous fungi and yeast at minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) values of 0.16 to 3.5 mg/ml. The use of degenerate primers allowed us to isolate three full-length cDNAs, LpFENS, LpPINS and LpGEAS, from the leaves of L. pedunculata. Six full-length homologous cDNAs, LsFENS, LsFENS, LsPINS, LsGEAS, LvFENS, LvPINS and LvGEAS were also isolated from the leaves of L. stoechas and L. viridis with specific primers designed on the cDNAs previously cloned. Heterologous expression in E. coli and GC/MS analysis of the catalytic activity of native recombinant enzymes of these TPSs have led to their functional characterization as α-fenchol synthases (LpFENS, LsFENS and LvFENS), α-pinene synthases (LpPINS, LsPINS and LvPINS) and germacrene A synthases (LpGEAS, LsGEAS and LvGEAS)
Biodiversity, bioactivity and biosynthesis of volatile terpene compounds of winged lavenders, Lavandula stoechas sensu lato, mediterranean species complex of pharmacological interest