Investigação fitoquímica e das atividades antioxidante e antiparasitária do extrato e frações de Aspidosperma excelsum Benth

Abstract

Neglected diseases are diseases that affect a large number of people around the world. These include Chagas disease, leishmaniasis and malaria, whose therapy used, in addition to reduced presents problems that hinder their treatment and show the need to search for new therapeutic options. Aspidosperma excelsum (Apocynaceae), popularly known as carapanaúba, is used in the popular herbal medicine for the treatment of malaria. Its chemical constitution and antiparasitic activity of other species of genus suggests its antiparasitic potential. To investigate their chemical constitution and possible biological activities, the lyophilized extract, obtained from barks of specie, and their alkaloidic fractions were analyzed by chromatographic techniques and evaluated for antioxidant and antiparasitic activity against Leishmania ssp., Trypanossoma cruzi e Plasmodium falciparum. The HPLC analyses showed peaks highly correlated to yohimbine in the tincture and in its alkaloidic fractions: FAlk7, FAlk10 and FAlk14. All the samples were active against L. chagasi and FAlk1, FAlk4 and FAlk7 show IC50 values lower than Amphotericin B against L. braziliensis. Fractions FAlk1 and FAlk4 were also active on P. falciparum, showing high selectivity to the parasite. Evaluation of antioxidant activity revealed important capacity of samples in capturing free radicals, characterizing them as antioxidants.