Antioxidant and genotoxic activity of Pistacia terebinthus and Ephedra alata crude extracts

In the last decades, cases of poisoning due to medicinal plants have been very common in many countries including Algeria. Algerian herbal medicines have been used in effectively treating several health problems, but their toxicity limits their use. Pistacia terebinthus and Ephedra alata herbal medicine collected from Algeria have been used for a long time to treat several diseases. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the chemical composition and evaluate the genotoxicity and the antioxidant activity of crude extracts of these two herbal medicines ( E. alata and P. terebinthus ) traditionally used in Algeria and North Africa. For this purpose, genotoxicity was assessed using the micronucleus test. Additionally, compounds with antioxidant and genotoxic activities of these two plants were identified by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The highest antioxidant capacity of the extracts was found in P. terebinthus ethanol extract owing to its richness of daphnetin, and oleic acid amide. Our results showed that most of these plants exhibited antioxidant activities and genotoxic effects, depending on the level of administered doses. To our knowledge, this is the first report on these effects caused by of both plants.