Phenolic composition and antiparasitic activity of plants from the Brazilian Northeast ‘‘Cerrado”

Abstract EN

This work describes the antiparasitic and cytotoxic activities of three plant species from the Cerrado biome, Northeastern Brazil.

Significant antiparasitic inhibition was observed against Trypanosoma cruzi (63.86%), Leishmania brasiliensis (92.20%) and Leishmania infantum (95.23%) when using ethanol extract from leaves of Guazuma ulmifolia Lam.

(Malvaceae), at a concentration of 500 lg/mL.

However, low levels of inhibition were observed when assessing leishmanicidal and trypanocidal (Clone CL-B5) activities of crude ethanol extracts from leaves and bast tissue of Luehea paniculata (Malvaceae) and leaves and bark of Prockia crucis (Salicaceae) at a concentration of 500 lg/mL.

The extracts revealed the presence of phenolic acids such as gallic acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid and rosmarinic acid, as well as flavonoids such as rutin, luteolin, apigenin and quercetin – the latter detected only in G.

ulmifolia.

G.

ulmifolia extract displayed higher leishmanicidal activity probably due to the presence of quercetin, a potent known leishmanicidal compound.

A cytotoxicity test indicated values over 50% at the highest concentration (1000 lg/mL) for all natural products