Chemical Composition and In Silico Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitory Activity of Essential Oils of Six Apiaceae Species from South-East Morocco

This work aims to investigate the chemical composition of essential oils extracted from the seeds of six wild Moroccan Apiaceae species (Ammodaucus leucotrichus Coss & Dur, Carum carvi L., Coriandrum sativum L., Cuminum cyminum L., Foeniculum vulgare Mill., and Petroselinum crispum (Mill.) Fuss.,), and study the potential of the main compounds of the obtained essential oils as Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. The essential oils thus obtained were analyzed and identified by the GC-Ms. To determine the similarities and dissimilarities between the chemical composition of the essential oils of the six species, we performed the Principal component analysis (PCA) and Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC). The main compounds of the selected plants were studied for their docking behavior against acetylcholinesterase using surflex-docking. The GC-Ms results showed that the major components present in the A.leucotrichus Coss, C.carvi, C.sativum, C.cyminum, F. vulgare, and P.crispum were respectively Perrillaldehyde, Carvone, Linalool, Cuminaldehyde, Estragole, and Apiol. Regarding the in silico study of the main compounds, Cuminaldehyde as the major component of C. cyminum L., essential oil indicated a strong Acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity. These presented findings suggest that the essential oil of C. cyminum may be a novel alternative source of acetylcholinesterase inhibitor.