Composição química de diferentes extratos de Plectranthus amboinicus (Lour.) Spreng.

Abstract

Medicinal plants are an important source of biologically active products, many of which have served as a model for the synthesis of a significant number of drugs, providing important advances in the treatment of various diseases. In Brazil, one of the species commonly used for medicinal purposes is Plectranthus amboinicus (Lour.) Spreng, popularly known as Kingdom Mallow. The objective of this work was to evaluate the chemical constitution of different extracts of leaves of the species cultivated in the municipality of Cajazeiras/PB. The leaves were collected in the morning, dried in an oven at 50 ° C and subjected to extraction using as solvent absolute alcohol or a mixture of alcohol and water (hydroalcoholic extract). Dry extract and in natura samples were also evaluated. After the concentration of the paste material, analyzes were carried out in order to quantify the levels of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, flavonoids, anthocyanins and total phenolic compounds. In relation to chlorophyll a, the alcohol extract presented 15 times more content of this pigment in relation to the in natura sample. For chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll, these followed the same tendency observed for a, being the highest average values found in the alcoholic extract. For flavonoids there was no statistical difference between the alcoholic and hydroalcoholic extracts, but with respect to anthocyanins, the alcoholic extract was highlighted. On the other hand, for total phenolic compounds the most efficient extraction occurred with hydroalcohol. Thus, it is concluded that the alcoholic extract retains higher levels of the primary metabolites and of the majority of the secondary metabolites analyzed, being characterized as an efficient method in the preparation of extracts of Plectranthus amboinicus.