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The antimitotic and genotoxic effects of aqueous extracts of five medicinal plants: Tetraclinis articulata (Vahl) Masters; Withania frutescens Pauquy; Peganum harmala L.; Ruta chalepensis L. and Haloxylon scoparium Pomel was evaluated using the Allium cepa assay. Onion bulbs were exposed to 0.25; 0.50; 0.75 and 1% concentrations (m/v) of each extracts for microscopic analyses. The extracts of P. harmala and H. scoparium shown mitodepressive effects on cell division at the 1% concentration. All the aqueous extracts induce an important aberrations due to different mechanisms: inhibitory, aneugenic and clastogenic effects of the aqueous extracts on Allium cepa meristematic cells. The antigenotoxic effect observed on cells treated by sodium azide and then by the aqueous extract of leaves of Withania frutescens at 1% concentration requires a chemical characterization of this plant and structural elucidation of the active principle. The qualitative analyses realized by thin layer chromatography (TLC) shows the presence of coumarins and flavonoides in some active extracts. The quantitative analyses realized by spectrophotometric assay indicate an important level of polyphenols and flavonoids in the aqueous extracts of T. articulata and H. scoparium.

The biological activity of crude leaf essential oil of Peganum harmala L. harvested from Oued M'Zab in region of Ghardaïa (Algerian septentrional Sahara), on the larvae L5 and adult individuals of desert locust, showed a toxic effect in the desert locust. After treatment, the fifth stage larvae and imagos of S. gregaria, by crude extracts of P. harmala leaf essential oils, problems of imbalances and convulsive movements are observed. These are the same symptoms noted, in insects treated with insecticides. The lethal time 50 (LT50) measured immediately after treatment, are of the order of 06 mn 12 ' of L5 larvae and for 19 mn 21' for imagos of this insect. The fifth stage larvae of the desert locust seem more sensitive to the action of essential oils as imagos.

Limoniastrum feei (plumbagenaceae) a medicinal plant, used in Saharan ethnopharmacopeae to treat gastric tract, hepatit desorder and cought. The antibacterial extracts from leaves, stem and twig of this plant are screened for the principal classes of secondary metabolites, such as Alkaloids, Saponins, Terpenes, Tannins, Flavonoids, Steroids and Cardenolids.

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