Avaliação do teor de espilatol no ciclo de cultura de duas cultivares de Aemella oleracea (L.) R. K. Jansen em extratos obtidos por entração supercritica

Abstract

Acmella oleracea (L.) R. K. Jansen is a species native to South America, popularly known as jambu, and has been consumed for many years as an ornamental, medicinal, and food plant. To obtain espilantol, the main bioactive compound of this species, various extraction techniques have been used in order to obtain the isolated substance, since it is not commercially available. Among the techniques, supercritical carbon dioxide extraction stands out as it showed high selectivity for espilantol, with yields above 50%, resulting in a purity above 90% of the isolated compound. The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of rainfall and harvest time on the yield of spilanthol with supercritical CO2 in two cultivars of Acmella oleracea (L.) R. K. Jansen flowers, as well as to evaluate their pharmacological effect. For this purpose, the following procedures were performed: raw material characterization; optimization of the process variables (flow and time); obtaining of extracts by supercritical extraction; determining of the process cost on an analytical scale; determination of the total phenolic compounds concentration in the extracts by Folin-Ciocalteu method; spilanthol content quantification in the extracts by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, and evaluation of its antinociceptive in vivo activity. The main results were: the mineral analysis indicated high levels of iron, calcium, zinc, and magnesium; the process optimization resulted in a CO2 use decrease from 955,8g to 477,9g, and reduced extraction costs from R$ 20.47 to R$ 11.45. The higher espilantol content was 29.22%, while the highest phenolic content was 43.04%. The flowers of both Acmella oleracea cultivars were considered good sources of iron, calcium, zinc, and magnesium. The highest values of extract yield, spilanthol content and total phenolic compounds were obtained in the rainy season and in the shortest harvest times. Between the two cultivars evaluated, no significant statistical differences were found.