[en] We discuss new results concerning the investigation of the "1"9F(p, α _0)"1"6O and "1"0B(p, α _0)"7Be reactions at low energies. Both reactions are important for the nuclear spectroscopy of the formed compound nucleus, i.e. "2"0Ne and "1"1C respectively, and play a role in nuclear astrophysics. For the "1"0B(p, α _0)"7Be case, a comprehensive analysis of our reaction data and other scattering data points out the possible presence of an unreported state in "1"1C at E_x ≈ 9.36 MeV. For the "1"9F(p, α _0)"1"6O case, the study of the low energy angular distributions testifies the role played by low energy resonances in the S-factor, leading to an enhanced reaction rate at stellar energies. (paper)