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

Valorising leaves of Garciniabrasiliensi Mart as sources of bioactive compounds

Discovery of new drugs from natural products is becoming widespread and an example of a promising plant is the bacupari-anão or bacupari mirim that belongs to the species: Garcinia brasiliensi Mart, family Myrtaceae. This tree is native to the forests of the Amazonian and also to the Atlantic Forest. Since ancient time, the leaves of this tree have been reported to have numerous functionalities, correlated with the presence of bioactive compounds [1]. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the bioactive properties of G. brasiliensi leaves regarding to its possible antioxidant activity and cytotoxic properties in human tumor cells. Three different extracts of the leaves were tested: hexane, dichloromethane and ethyl acetate. Furthermore, the most active extract was characterized in terms of its phenolic compounds content.Chemical profile of the extracts was obtained using an HPLC system coupled to a diode array detector (DAD) and mass spectrometry (MS) with an electrospray ionization interface (ESI). The antioxidant activity was evaluated by four in vitro assays:DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging activity, reducing power, inhibition of β-carotene bleaching and inhibition of lipid peroxidation by the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) assay.The cytotoxicity was tested in MCF-7 (breast adenocarcinoma), NCI-H460 (non-small cell lung carcinoma), HeLa (cervical carcinoma) and HepG2 (hepatocellular carcinoma) cell lines and in a non-tumor primary culture (porcine liver primary culture PLP2). Among all the tested samples, ethyl acetate extract presented the highest DPPH scavenging activity (EC50 value = 31,2 ± 0,2μg/mL), reducing power (68,8± 0,2 μg/mL), β-carotene bleaching inhibition capacity (15,9 ± 0,3μg/mL) and TBARS (4,6 ± 0,2 μg/mL). It was also able to inhibit all the tested human tumor cells and none of the samples revealed toxicity for the non-tumor cell line PLP2 (GI50<400 μg/mL). The ethyl acetate extract was the most active extract and analysis of HPLC-DADMS data revealed a total of twelve phenolic compounds, comprising five bioflavonoids, four flavones, two flavonols and a flavan-3-ol. The most abundant phenolic compound was the bioflavonoid morelloflavone-7-O-glucoside. This study highlights the importance of the recovery and valorisation of G. brasiliensi leaves, in order to obtain valuable products, which can be explored in the development of functional foods.The authors are grateful to FCT, Portugal and FEDER under Programme PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2013), A. Fernandes grant (SFRH/BPD/114753/2016), and L. Barros and R.Calhelha contracts; to Interreg España-Portugal for financial support through the project 0377_Iberphenol_6_E; and to the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rondônia and the– CAPES.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Garcínía brasiliensis leaves: Bioactive properties and phytochemical assessment

The Amazon rainforest is the home to several medicinal plant species popularly used for the treatment of a wide range of diseases. Despite the rich biodiversity of this region, there is still a lack of comprehensive studies regarding the uses, bioactivities, chemical composition and pharmacological properties of many of these medicinal plants [l]. In the present work, Garcinia brasiliensis Mart., a green plant native to the Amazon region, cultivated for its edible fruit, popularly referred to as "bacuparianão" or "guapomo" was studied. Some of its well reported bioactive properties include antioxidant, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic and antiprotozoal activities but very little studies have been conducted describing the phytochemical profile and establishing compounds-bioactivity relationships of the extracts obtained from its vegetative organs [2]. In view of these pharmaceutical potentials, leaves of G. brasilienses were collected at São Cristóvão site, Paraná, Brazil. They were then submitted to a cold methanol extraction, and further liquid-liquid partitioned to obtain hexane, dichloromethane and ethyl acetate fractions. The antioxidant, antiinflammatory, antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities of each fraction were tested, and the most bioactive fraction was submitted to phenolic characterization using HPLCDAD- ESI/MSn. The results showed that the ethyl acetate fraction showed the highest antioxidant activity which was comparable to Trolox, the positive control. This fraction also showed a broad spectrum antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gramnegative bactéria, and Cândida albicans. The phenolic profile of the ethyl acetate fraction presented twelve flavonoids, being morelloflavone-7"-0-glucoside (52. 1±0.4 mg/g) and gardinia biflavonoid 2a glucoside (27. 5±0.2mg/g) 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 financiai support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2013) and L. Barros contract; to FEDER-Interreg Espana-Portugal programme for financiai support through the project 0377_Iberphenol_6_E.]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio