Prospecção fitoquímica e determinação do potencial antioxidante in vitro da Licania tomentosa (Benth.)

ABSTRACT: Scientific name Licance Tomentosa (Benth.), OITI belongs to the Chrysobalanaceae family, which covers 17 genera and approximately 450 shrub and tree species, scattered by tropical and subtropical regions. Its genre, Licance, is predominantly neotropical, composed of small and large trees, which are widely distributed on the globe, passing through Mexico, Florida, Antilles, to the south of Brazil (Feitosa, Xavier & Randau, 2012). In popular medicine OITI is used in the treatment of diabetes (Agra, Freitas & Barbosa-Filho, 2007), however, still without scientific proof. Studies developed by Miranda and employees (2002), regarding pharmacological action, indicates that the seed presents antiviral action against the herpes virus. In addition, isolated sheet compounds and fruits indicate anti -Chinogenic action (Fernandes et al., 2003) and also Leishmanicide (Ribeiro et al., 2014). In this context, the present work aims to determine the potential for free radicals (AAO%) of the ethanolic extract of L. tomentosa sheet, from the DPPH radical sequestration method, which consists of quantitatively evaluating the reduction of DPPH from of the color change - which passes from purple to yellowish - according to the concentration of antioxidants in the samples. In order to do so, a qualitative phytochemical prospecting was initially performed, which demonstrated the presence of classes of compounds of great pharmacological importance such as flobatenic tannins, catechine flavonoids, steroids and saponins. The result obtained shows the L. tomentosa sheet extract is efficient in the DPPH radical kidnapping, presenting a% of 50% (CE50%) at the concentration of 63.03 μg / ml. Which indicates a potential only about twice as low as the antioxidant potential of the standard extract of G. biloba, which is well known for such characteristic. In this sense, more studies are necessary to elucidate the relationship between the reducing activity and the concentration of the phenolic constituents of its extract, well evaluation of its antioxidant potential through other methodologies. We thank Cesmac for the availability of their laboratories for the elaboration of the experiments. KEYWORDS: L. tomentosa, phytochemical prospecting, dpph, antioxidant activity.