Abstract: Formes, couleurs, odeurs… les mécanismes par lesquels les Aracées
attirent les pollinisateurs se sont tellement diversifiés qu’elles sont
devenues de passionnants “cas d’école” pour les évolutionnistes. Ils
commencent aujourd’hui à retracer cette histoire évolutive complexe où
les interactions avec les insectes ne se font pas toujours “au bénéfice de
tous”.

Abstract: Plant natural products have been perfected through evolution with respect to their specific biological roles (defense, elicitor, and so on) and are, therefore, an excellent starting point in the search for new biologically active chemicals. Hence, despite the progressive abandonment of the exploration of naturally sourced bioactive substances by the pharmaceutical industry, more than half of the drugs approved in the United States between 2005 and 2007 are natural products or natural product-derived drugs, five of which constituted the first members of new drug classes [1]. Clearly, chemical research into natural substances still has an important role to play in improving quality of life, and can play an important role by inventing innovative strategies to discover new bioactive compounds [1,2].
In the present work, we demonstrated that a bio-inspired approach for the identification of novel bioactive natural products represents a promising biotechnological tool for the development of new drugs. We have studied how natural defenses within decay-resistant wood can generate a large number of positive hits in the search for antimycotic agents. In addition, it was found from bioguided fractionation that ethyl acetate extracts of Sextonia rubra wood contain a relatively large proportion of antifungal metabolites rubrenolide (1) and rubrynolide (2), 1 being slightly more active than 2. The therapeutic potential of the above compounds will be discussed through the evaluation of their antifungal activities against 16 pathogenic fungi strains and their cytotoxicities towards KB cells.

Abstract: As part of the valorization of medicinal and aromatic plants in South Morocco, we studied the effect of provenance on the yield, chemical composition and antibacterial and antifungal activity of essential oils of Ammodaucus leucotrichus subsp. leucotrichus. The essential oils obtained by hydro-distillation of the fruits were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The most abundant compounds identified varied depending on the origin of the plant: perillaldehyde (69.9% to 88.7%), limonene (8.3% to 16.6%) and α-pinene (1.4% to 7.1%). The oils analyzed all displayed strong antimicrobial activity against all the microorganisms tested.

Abstract: Woods have been protected with fungicides for a long time, and the effects of these fungicides on soil after being leached into the ground have turned out to be a true environmental issue. It is in this perspective that we are proposing to study fungal communities of these contaminated woods in a purpose of bioremediation. Most of precedent studies have focused on ability of some Basidiomycetes and white rot fungi to degrade these biocide products. Treated and reference (non-treated) woods samples have been incubated in containers of forest soil in Guyana. The first two samplings of these woods and soils have been realized five months apart. A crop and molecular study allowed us to isolate and identify forty strains of Ascomycetes able to develop on wood and resist xenobiotics. Until now, no Ascomycete was known to resist xenobiotics. Furthermore, a study of fungal communities of the woods and soil were done by D-HPLC and SSCP, and then analyzed by ACP. According to these analyses, biocides are leached in the soil and have an impact on these fungal communities, which are different depending on time of sampling and the way wood is processed.