Les exsudats des plantes sont des substances naturelles complexes. Ils sont utilisés par plusieurs populations d’Afrique et trouvent de nombreuses applications : en thérapeutique, en pharmacie galénique, en parfumerie, etc. Au Congo, une grande majorité de ces substances est encore mal connue. Ce travail de thèse a consisté à inventorier les plantes à exsudats du Congo et à mettre au point une méthodologie d’analyse physico-chimique permettant la caractérisation des exsudats d’arbres d’origine botanique certifiée.La méthodologie d’inventaire adoptée nous a permis de recenser 135 plantes à exsudats appartenant à 87 genres. Il en ressort de cette étude que les exsudats des plantes inventoriées ont multiples usages (glu, insectifuge, allume-feu, antidouleur, etc.).La stratégie mise en place pour leur caractérisation fait appel à plusieurs techniques analytiques (SPIR, SMIR, CPG-SM, GCxGC-MS) et de traitement d’échantillon (Hs-SPME, hydrodistillation, extraction au Soxhlet, silylation, méthylation, pyrolyse). Dans le cadre de ce travail deux exsudats ont été caractérisés. L’exsudat de D. edulis (G. Don) K.J. Lam qui est constitué de monoterpènes hydrocarbonés et de triterpènes, dont les majeurs sont : 3-épi-α et -β-amyrine. L’exsudat de G. demeusei (Harms) J. Léonard dont la fraction volatile est constituée essentiellement de sesquiterpènes et la fraction peu-volatile d’acides diterpéniques de type labdane (acide éperuique, cativique, copalique, ozique, etc.).Pour exploiter l’efficacité de séparation élevée de la GCxGC-MS, nous nous sommes confronté aux problèmes de la non-répétabilité des cartes chromatographiques obtenues en 2D. Nous avons alors mis en place une méthodologie permettant de vérifier l’épaisseur de film et l’homogénéité des dépôts de phases stationnaires afin de sélectionner des colonnes courtes identiques pour la GCxGC. Cependant, les résultats préliminaires ont montré que même avec des colonnes de deuxième dimension identiques, on pouvait avoir des différences au niveau de carte 2D. / Plant exudates are natural complex substances. They are used by several populations in Africa and have many applications: in therapeutics, in galenic pharmacy, in perfumery, etc. In Congo, a great majority of these substances are not yet well known. This thesis work aimed to make an inventory of plant exudates from Congo and to develop a methodology for performing physico-chemical analysis which may enable characterization of exudates from botanical certified trees.Through the methodology that we developed, 135 plant exudates belonging 87 genera were registered. It was observed in this study that these exudates are used for many purposes (glue, insect repellent, making fire, anti-pain, etc).The strategy implemented for characterizing the exudates included several analytical (SNIR, SMIR, GC-MS, GCxGC-MS) and sample processing (Hs-SPME, hydrodistillation, extraction using the Soxhlet, silylation, methylation pyrolyse) techniques. With regard to this work, two exudates were characterized. The exudates from D. edulis (G. Don) K.J. Lam which contained monoterpene hydrocarbons and triterpenes, with the major constituents being: 3-epi-α and -β-amyrine. The exudates from G. Demeusei (Harms) J. Léonard was found to have the sesquiterpenes as major constituents of the volatile fraction and the labdane-type diterpenes (eperuique acide, cativique acid, copalique acid, ozique acid, etc) as major constituents of the poor-volatile fraction.To explore the efficacy of elevated separation of the GCxGC-MS, we faced some problems related to the non-repeatability of chromatographic cards obtained in 2D. Therefore, we put in place a methodology which enables us to verify the film thickness and homogeneity of layers of stationary phases in order to select identical short columns for GCxGC. However, the preliminary results have shown that even using second identical dimension columns, we could observed differences in 2D cards

The identification of petroleum acids, also known as ‘naphthenic’ acids (NA), has been an analytical challenge for over 140 years. However, most recent interest in NA has arisen due to concerns over their presence and apparent associated toxic effect in oil platform produced waters and oil sands process waters (OSPW), respectively. Understanding the toxicity, transformations during biodegradation and remediation treatments and predicting the fate of NA in the environment will be aided by the identification of individual NA. However the elucidation of individual acid structures by standard chromatographic techniques, such as GC-MS, has so far been limited by the extreme complexity of the NA mixtures. Recent analysis of NA as the methyl ester derivatives, by multidimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC×GC-MS), has resulted in the identification of several tri- to pentacyclic, aromatic and sulphur-containing acids as well as tricyclic diacids. Therefore the current investigation focused on the identification of the abundant bicyclic acids in petroleum and OSPW acid extracts, utilising the unparalleled chromatographic separation and mass spectrometric detection offered by GC×GC-MS. Analysis of fractionated NA as methyl esters, resulted in the first identification of several bicyclic acids in OSPW including several novel bridged bicyclic acids, several fused bicyclic acids, as well as some terpenoid-derived drimane and labdane acids. However, identifications were limited somewhat by a lack of reference mass spectra and lack of availability of reference compounds for co-chromatography. A complementary method, based on an historical approach, involving reduction of NA esters to hydrocarbons, was modified and substantially improved. Analysis of the hydrocarbons resulting from the reduced acids, by GC×GC-MS, and comparison of the hydrocarbon mass spectra with the more abundant reference spectra available for petroleum hydrocarbons, resulted in the identification of over 40 individual bicyclic acids including fused, bridged and terpenoid-derived acids. The study provides the most comprehensive analysis of one of the major classes of NA (the bicyclic acids) to date. The methods developed were applied to the structural elucidation of NA in commercial NA and OSPW NA and resulted in the identification of numerous alicyclic, aromatic and sulphur-containing acids, supporting and extending previous identifications. There is clear potential for this method to be used for the identification of other unknown acids and functionalised biomarkers in complex matrices. The new knowledge of the acid structures in petroleum and OSPW NA can now be used to inform future research into the environmental monitoring and toxicity of NA.

Enteric (or typhoid) fever is a systemic infection mainly caused by Salmonella Typhi and Salmonella Paratyphi A. The disease is common in areas with poor water quality and insufficient sanitation. Humans are the only reservoir for transmission of the disease. The presence of asymptomatic chronic carriers is a complicating factor for the transmission. There are major limitations regarding the current diagnostic methods both for acute infection and chronic carriage. Metabolomics is a methodology studying metabolites in biological systems under influence of environmental or physiological perturbations. It has been applied to study several infectious diseases, with the goal of detecting diagnostic biomarkers. In this thesis, a mass spectrometry-based metabolomics approach, including chemometric bioinformatics techniques for data analysis, has been used to evaluate the potential of metabolite biomarker patterns for diagnosis of enteric fever at different stages of the disease. In Paper I, metabolite patterns related to acute enteric fever were investigated. Human plasma samples from patients in Nepal with culture-confirmed S. Typhi or S. Paratyphi A infection were compared to afebrile controls. A metabolite pattern discriminating between acute enteric fever and afebrile controls, as well as between the two causative agents of enteric fever was detected. The strength of using a panel of metabolites instead of single metabolites as biomarkers was also highlighted. In Paper II, metabolite patterns for acute enteric fever, this time focusing only on S. Typhi infections, were investigated. Human plasma from patients in Bangladesh with culture-positive or -negative but clinically suspected S. Typhi infection were compared to febrile controls. Differences were found in metabolite patterns between the culture-positive S. Typhi group and the febrile controls with a heterogeneity among the suspected S. Typhi samples. Consistencies in metabolite patterns were found to the results from Paper I. In addition, a validation cohort with culture-positive S. Typhi samples and a control group including patients with malaria and infections caused by other pathogens was analysed. Differences in metabolite patterns were detected between S. Typhi samples and all controls as well as between S. Typhi and malaria. Consistencies in metabolite patterns were found to the primary Bangladeshi cohort and the Nepali cohort from Paper I. Paper III focused on chronic Salmonella carriers. Human plasma samples from patients in Nepal undergoing cholecystectomy with confirmed S. Typhi or S. Paratyphi A gallbladder carriage were compared to non-carriage controls. The Salmonella carriage samples were distinguished from the non-carriage controls and differential signatures were also found between the S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi A carriage samples. Comparing metabolites found during chronic carriage and acute enteric fever (in Paper I) resulted in a panel of metabolites significant only during chronic carriage. This work has contributed to highlight the potential of using metabolomics as a tool to find diagnostic biomarker patterns associated with different stages of enteric fever.

The identification of the hydrolysis and photodegradation products of flexible polyurethane foams (PUFs) with addition of biooriginated and biodegradable additive was the first topic of this dissertation work. Separation of polyurethane foam hydrolysis degradation products, designed for ecotoxicological tests, was managed by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS). The degradations product structure was elucidated by tandem mass spectrometry (MSn). PUF photodegradation products were obtained by exposure of materials by irradiation at 254 nm. Semi-volatile degradation products were isolated from the exposed polyurethane by n-hexane extraction; volatile compounds were collected by solid phase microextraction (SPME). Gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and complete orthogonal tandem gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GCxGC/TOF MS) was used for separation and identification of photodegradation products. The influence of the bio-filler on the character of degradation products and the possible effect of PUF degradation products on the environment was discussed at the end of this section. The determination of isoprostanes – markers of oxidative stress in tissues of beadlet anemone (Actinia equina) was the subject of the second topic. F2-isoprostanes were synthesized from the arachidonic acid. With thereby prepared isoprostanes the method of determination by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS/MS) was developed and optimized. The isoprostane isolation process from the Actinia equina tissues was optimized with solid phase extraction (SPE). The resulting methodology was used to quantify isoprostanes in tissues of anemones, which were exposed to both moderate and high temperature changes. The temperature changes were used to initiate the oxidative stress in organisms. In addition, concentration levels of unknown compounds were also monitored. These unknown compounds were extracted from tissues together with F2-isoprostanes and their identity is discussed in this dissertation work too. The possibility of using isoprostane levels in the Anthozoa tissues for the oxidative stress monitoring is discussed in the conclusion of this work.