Avaliação das atividades antimicrobiana, antioxidante e análise preliminar da mutagenicidade do extrato aquoso das folhas de Anacardium humile St. Hill. (Anacardiaceae)

Abstract

Anacardium humile St. Hill. (Anacardiaceae), a native species from Brazilian Savanna is used in feeding and as medical plant. Popularly, all the plant parts are utilized: the nut oil is used to cauterize skin injuries, the leaves and stem peel are indicated against diarrhea and as expectorant, the pseudo fruit is reported as antisyphilis medication, the flowers are employed against cough and to lower the blood glucose. This work has tested the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities and the mutagenic potential of the aqueous extract from A. humile leaves. The cavity method in dishes was utilized to test the antimicrobial activity against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria and yeast. The results were negative for all concentrations used. To test the antioxidant activity, the methods DPPH , iron chelating activity and deoxyribose assay were utilized. The most favorable values were found at DPPH and iron chelating activity tests, showing that aqueous extract of A. humile is composed by antioxidants that may kidnap free radicals in vitro, suggesting that there are different mechanisms responsible for this activity. The mutagenic potential was tested utilizing the Ames Test only in the absence of metabolization factor (S9 fraction) using TA98 and TA100 strains, and in these conditions, the extract didn t present mutagenicity.