Research Article Assessment of Antioxidant Activity and Neuroprotective Capacity on PC12 Cell Line of Frankenia thymifolia and Related Phenolic LC-MS/MS Identification Rim Ben Mansour, 1 Wided Megdiche Ksouri, 1 Stéphanie Cluzet, 2 Stéphanie Krisa, 2 Tristan Richard, 2 and Riadh Ksouri 1 1 Laboratory of Aromatic and Medicinal Plants, Center of Biotechnology, Technopark of Borj-Cedria (CBBC), BP 901, 2050 Hammam-Lif, Tunisia 2 University of Bordeaux, ISVV, GESVAB EA3675, 33882 Villenave d’Ornon, France Correspondence should be addressed to Riadh Ksouri; ksouri.riadh@gmail.com Received 20 July 2016; Revised 23 September 2016; Accepted 28 September 2016 Academic Editor: Gabriel A. Agbor Copyright © 2016 Rim Ben Mansour et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Tis work aimed to investigate the richness of a Tunisian xerohalophyte Frankenia thymifolia aerial and root parts on phenolics and to evaluate the antioxidant and neuroprotective properties of this medicinal species. Afer fractionation using increasing and diferent solvent polarities, results displayed fve fractions, where ethyl acetate (EtOAc) shoot and root fractions possess considerable total phenolic contents (221 and 308 mg of GAE/g of E, resp.) related to their important antioxidant activities such as ORAC (918 and 713 mg of TE/g of E), DPPH (282 and 821 mg of TE/g), and ABTS (778 and 1320 mg of TE/g) tests. Ten, the identifcation of the main compounds by HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS and neuroprotective property of the most active fraction EtOAc were assessed. A total of 14 molecules were identifed, which have been described for the frst time in F. thymifolia. Te major compounds identifed were pinoresinol and kaempferol glycoside in aerial parts and gallic acid and ellagitannin in roots. Neuroprotective capacity against - amyloid (A) peptide induced toxicity in PC12 cells of EtOAc fraction showed a signifcant protective activity at lower concentration (25 and 50 M). Te relevant antioxidant and neuroprotective activities of F. thymifolia EtOAc fraction corroborated their chemical compositions. 1. Introduction Many lifestyle factors endorse health of the nervous system in trouble by imposing a mild stress on neural cells and demand for phytotherapeutic agents is growing, in view of synthetic drugs that are believed to have certain side efects such as dry mouth, tiredness, anxiety or nervousness, dementia, and pseudodementia [1]. Efects of these synthetic drugs have caught attention from research bases and industries towards natural herbal resources [2]. In addition to their antioxidant and several health promoting activities, natural bioactive compounds including phenolics, favonoids, alkaloids, ter- penoids, lignans, and saponins have potential properties to modulate neuronal function, protective mechanism against neurodegeneration, and memory enhancing properties and attenuate the damaging efects of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Many factors are known to play a direct role in the initiation of neurodegeneration; free radical formation by ROS is the main causative factor [3]. Excess of ROS in the body can lead to cumulative damage in cellular structures, resulting in so-called oxidative stress [4]. Neurons and brain cells are particularly vulnerable to free radicals, and oxidative stress is one of the main causative factors in the etiology of a number of late onset disorders [1, 5]. In addition, oxidative stress seems to mediate -amyloid peptide toxicity by free radical production, suggesting a pathophysiological relation between A and imbalance between reactive oxygen pro- duction and protective system [6]. Neuronal cells oxidative damage may be a source of endogenous production of ROS, and amyloid beta (A) peptide may increase ROS production causing further impairment of cellular structure function in brain [7, 8]. A is the main component of senile plaques and Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2016, Article ID 2843463, 8 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/2843463