Centaurea species are used in eastern Mediterranean ethnopharmacology as a result of varietes of bioactive compounds they comprise. Aim of this work was to characterize the Centaurea rupestris L. hydrodistilled essential oil chemical composition and test the biological activity: antimicrobial effect, antioxidant potential and inhibition of cholinesterases. Plant material authentication was done with chromosome number counting and genome size assessment with the flow cytometry. Hydrodistilled essential oils were characterised with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry technique GC-MS and GC-FID. The antimicrobial effect was tested using disk diffusion and microdilution methods methods, antioxidant potential was tested with DPPH and FRAP methods and cholinesterases inhibition was tested with Ellman method. Genome size for C. rupestris species: sample A presented 2C=3.60 (0.10) pg and sample B 2C=3.62 (0.08) pg. The chromosome number was 2n=20 for both samples. The main essential oil constituents in isolated sample A oil, detected with GC-MS and GC-FID were: germacrene D (24.3%), heptacosane (14.4%), phytol (6.7%), β- caryophyllene (5.0%) and pentacosane (4.5%). Sample B essential oil had the main constituents: hexadecanoic acid (18.7%), heptacosane (13.8%), α-linolenic acid (11.8%), nonacosane (7.8%) and germacrene D (5.4%). Both samples of oil showed broad spectrum antimicrobial effect with good activity against emerging Gram-positive and Gram- negative oportunistic pathogens and pathogenic fungi which indicates the pharmaceutical potential of the C. rupestris essential oil.

Intense and long-lasting rains often cause troubles to the population in many cities and to proper urban planning and civil defense activities it is necessary to know the expected precipi1 Biometria e Estatística Aplicada, Univ. Federal Rural de Pernambuco-UFRPE, cavalcanti.rodrigo@gmail.com 2 Biometria e Estatística Aplicada, Univ. Federal Rural de Pernambuco-UFRPE, chsestatistica@gmail.com 3 Biometria e Estatística Aplicada, Univ. Federal Rural de Pernambuco-UFRPE, elielmas93@gmail.com 4 Doutor em Agronomia, Univ. Federal Rural de Pernambuco-UFRPE, moacyr2006@gmail.com 5 Doutora em Física, Univ. Federal Rural de Pernambuco-UFRPE, tastosic@gmail.com tation. In this work, we pursued to estimate the probable maximum precipitation (PMP) daily and accumulated from 2 to 7 days for Recife-PE and to estimate the return time for the PMPs found. Moreover, based on the theoretical distribution function of the data, calculate the PMPs for 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 years. The pluviometric data were captured by the data collection platform (DCP) of the National Institute of Space Research (NISR) for the period 1998 to 2012. The adjustment of the Gumbel distribution was observed through the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test at the level of significance of 5%, the parameters of this distribution were obtained by the moments method. The estimates for the PMPs were determined by the Hersfield method, where it considers the frequency of annual maximum rainfall data recorded at the site of interest. Excel and R software were used for the analysis. The results showed that in the accumulated 2 days, the return time of the PMP of 548mm is 82 years. It was estimated that every 2 years, rainfall events occurring at or above 125mm in 24 hours and that every 5 years rainfall events occurring at or above 211mm in 24 hours. Such results should support policies of civil defense and urban planning to mitigate damages to mobility, habitation, economy and life.