Estudo fitoquímico e atividade biológica em sementes e cascas do caule de Hymenaea courbaril L. var courbaril (Caesalpinioideae)

Abstract

The paper presents the chemical and biological study of seed and stem bark of Hymenaea courbaril L. var coubaril. Chemical studies of the seed resulted in the isolation of two biscoumarins: biscoumarin-7-O-β-glucopyranoside-2'-O-α-apiofuranosyl-2'''-O-α-galactopyranoside and 7-O-biscoumarin-β-glucopyranoside-2'-O-α-apiofuranosyl, elucidated by 1H NMR, 13C HMBC, HSQC spectrometry and high resolution mass. The chemical composition of the seeds oil was quantified by GC-MS and it identified the presence of palmitic (11.9%), linoleic (30.6%), arachidic (3.7%) behenic (9.2%) and lignoceric acid (5.8%). With respect to the DPPH• test, the residue of the EtOH extract of the stem bark showed the best antioxidant potential with 97.77%, followed by EtOH extract of the bark (97.71%), EtOH residue of the seeds (96.10%) and AcOEt extract of the seeds (94.90%). The biological study of the oil from the seeds has been done to investigate the antimicrobial activity using standard microorganisms (ATCC strains) with: Bacillus subtilis, Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Candida albicans, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Aspergillus niger Rhodotorulla rubra, but it had no effect on these tests. Acute and chronic treatments were performed in order to assess whether the extracts of seeds and the stem bark at concentrations 100 and 250 mg/kg, showed any behavioral changes as in locomotor activity, memory, antidepressant and anxiolytic. The tests were performed on mice, which were submitted to the open field test, inhibitory avoidance, elevated plus maze and forced swimming, respectively. In the open field and memory tests there was no significant change in treatment when compared with controls. The antidepressant effect was demonstrated in acute and chronic treatment of the animals exposed to extracts of the seeds and stem bark of H. courbaril L., at both concentrations. The anxiolytic effect was also confirmed, but only in the chronic treatment of the seeds with the extract at a concentration of 100 mg/kg.