A framework for coupling a participatory approach and life cycle assessment for public decision-making in rural territory management.

To ensure agricultural land in rural territories is managed sustainability, environmental assessments need to be undertaken to support both policy-makers and local stakeholders in their decision making. Thanks to its completeness, life cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the most widely used tools for the evaluation of environmental impacts. However, LCA is difficult to apply in rural areas of developing countries. First, it requires a lot of data that are difficult to collect due to the diversity of small farming systems. Second, LCA results are difficult for non-specialists to interpret due to the complexity of its multiple indicators. Third, the processes considered in LCA often do not match the values and interests of the stakeholders. The aim of this paper is to propose an innovative operational framework that couples LCA and a participatory approach to overcome these issues. The first step was to conduct a progressive participatory diagnosis of the socio-ecological structure of the rural territory and to characterise the main cropping systems. The results of the diagnosis and other data were progressively triangulated, validated and consolidated with the stakeholders at the territorial level. The paper discusses the quality and validity of data obtained using a participatory approach. To improve the appropriation of results by stakeholders, the LCA method was applied using a territorial approach to distinguish on-site and off-site activities as well as global and local impacts. The applicability of the framework was tested on a case study in a semi-arid region in central Tunisia.

Phytochemical Analysis and Evaluation of the Antioxidant, Anti-Inflammatory, and Antinociceptive Potential of Phlorotannin-Rich Fractions from Three Mediterranean Brown Seaweeds.

Phlorotannins, phenolic compounds produced exclusively by seaweeds, have been reported to possess various pharmacological properties. However, there have been few works on these compounds from Mediterranean seaweeds. In this study, we investigated the phytochemical analysis and pharmacological potential of phlorotannin-rich fractions from three brown seaweeds collected along the Tunisia coast: Cystoseira sedoides (PHT-SED), Cladostephus spongeosis (PHT-CLAD), and Padina pavonica (PHT-PAD). Phytochemical determinations showed considerable differences in total phenolic content (TPC) and phlorotannin content (PHT). The highest TPC level (26.45 mg PGE/g dry material (Dm)) and PHT level (873.14 µg PGE/g Dm) were observed in C. sedoides. The antioxidant properties of these three fractions assessed by three different methods indicated that C. sedoides displayed the highest total antioxidant activity among the three species (71.30 mg GAE/g Dm), as well as the free radical scavenging activity with the lowest IC50 value in both DPPH (27.7 µg/mL) and ABTS (19.1 µg/mL) assays. Furthermore, the pharmacological screening of the anti-inflammatory potential of these fractions using in vivo models, in comparison to reference drugs, established a remarkable activity of PHT-SED at the dose of 100 mg/kg; the inhibition percentages of ear edema in mice model and paw edema in rats model were of 82.55 and 81.08%, respectively. The content of malondialdehyde (MDA) in liver tissues has been quantified, and PHT-SED was found to remarkably increase the lipid peroxidation in rat liver tissues. In addition, in two pain mice models, PHT-SED displayed a profound antinociceptive activity at 100 mg/kg and has proved a better analgesic activity when used in combination with the opioid drug, tramadol.

Physico-chemical characterization and pharmacological activities of polysaccharides from Opuntia microdasys var. rufida cladodes.

The aim of this study is to isolate pectin from peel (WNPE) and pulp (WNPU) of Opuntia microdasys var. rufida's (OMR) cladodes and to characterize these polysaccharides by size exclusion (SEC/MALS/VD/DRI), gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometer (GC-MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. The polysaccharides were extracted in neutral aqueous media followed by ethanol precipitation and dialysis. Both WNPE and WNPU are mainly composed of uronic acids and some neutral sugars such as arabinose, galactose, rhamnose and mannose. Their molecular weight range from 2,180,000 and 4,920,000g/mol. The in-vivo pharmacological activities (anti-inflammatory, analgesic and gastroprotective activities) have been performed. The extracted pectin (50-100mg/kg, i.p. (intraperitoneal)) inhibited, in a dose-related manner, both carrageenan-induced paw edema in rats and Xylene-induced ear edema in mice. A dose-dependent action was obtained against chemical (writhing test) and thermic (hot plate test) stimuli, respectively, with doses of 50 and 100mg/kg. Moreover, a considerable gastroprotective effect was observed with these two biopolymers, the gastric ulcer was attenuated until 67.67% for WNPE and 81.93% for WNPU, at the dose of 100mg/kg.