Compostos fenólicos e atividade antioxidante de extratos de fridericia chica (Bonpl.) L.G. Lohmann (crajiru) utilizando solventes noivos e reaproveitados

Abstract

The use of plants for therapeutic purposes has shown to be a promising alternative measure for the treatment of various pathologies. Fridericia chica (Bonpl.) L.G. Lohmann is a climbing shrub popularly known as Crajiru, traditionally used in the treatment of infections in the liver, stomach, uterus and intestine. The species is known to be a source of secondary metabolites such as tannins, anthocyanins and flavonoids. Thus, the aim of the present study is to verify the content of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of the ethanolic extracts of F. chica leaves prepared with new and reused solvents from the rotaevaporation process, comparing with data from the scientific literature. The results obtained demonstrate that F. chica presented phenolic compounds both in the stem and in the leaves and consequent antioxidant activity justifying its popular use. Regarding solvents, a similar extracting efficiency was observed between reused and new methanol in most of the extracts studied, suggesting that reuse of recovered solvent is a viable option. However, a tendency towards a lower extraction of compounds was observed using reused methanol using the ultrasound (US) extraction method. It is possible to infer that the extracting efficiency of reused methanol, using the ultrasonic bath for leaf extracts, was statistically lower. Thus, the present study suggests that the reuse of solvents, for extractions using a magnetic stirrer (AM), once the conservation of extracting efficiency has been demonstrated, can provide benefits related to the reduction of the volume of waste to be discarded and savings in the acquisition of new solvents.