Bioactive properties and phytochemical assessment of Bacupari-anão (Garcinia brasiliensis Mart.) leaves native to Rondônia, Brazil

Leaf fractions of Garcinia brasiliensis were evaluated concerning their antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti inflammatory and cytotoxic properties, and the most active fraction was then fully characterized regarding its phenolic composition using HPLC-DAD-ESI/MSn. The ethyl acetate fraction from partitioning of the methanolic leaf extract revealed a strong antioxidant activity that was comparable to Trolox, the positive control. This fraction was also able to show a significant antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and the fungus Candida albicans. However, the dichloromethane fraction was found to present the highest anti-inflammatory (83 ± 9 µg mL−1) and cytotoxic activities, thus presenting slight toxicity using a non-tumor cell line. Regarding the phenolic profile, the ethyl acetate fraction presented twelve flavonoids, with morelloflavone-7’’-O-glucoside (52.1 ± 0.4 mg g−1) and gardinia biflavonoid 2a glucoside (27.5 ± 0.2 mg g−1) being the major compounds identified. These results indicate that leaves of G. brasiliensis might be a potential source of natural biomolecules for pharmaceutical and medicinal applications.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under Programme PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2013) and L. Barros’s contract; to the FEDER-Interreg España- Portugal programme for financial support through the project 0377_Iberphenol_6_E.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio