Avaliação das atividades antimicrobiana, citotóxica e genotóxica da goma do cajueiro (Anacardium occidentale Linn).

Abstract

The cashew gum (CG) is obtained by stem exudate of stem from the species Anacardium occidentale Linn. The same has great potential for applications in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food and textile industries, causing it to be fairly identified as major contender to replace the arabic gum (AG) in the formulation of solid dosage forms, mainly because of its structural similarity and chemistry with this, in addition to its high availability in the Northeast region of Brazil. The aim of this study was to analyze the antimicrobial activity, cytotoxic and genotoxic of cashew gum in order to obtain information on their potential for use as raw material in the production of medicines. The cashew gum was extracted by means of an adaptation of the method described by Rinaudo and Milas (1991), made by grinding the resin, dissolution in water with pH adjustment and ambient temperature, filtration and precipitation with ethanol. The antimicrobial activity of the gum was evaluated by broth macrodilution method, the starting concentration of 100 mg / ml to 0.39 mg / ml, in order to obtain a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). The agar diffusion method was used to compare the ability of gum purified with the crude resin inhibit the growth of four microorganisms, A. niger, C. albicans, S. aureus and E. coli at four different concentrations (150 mg/mL, 75 mg/mL, 37.5 mg/mL and 18.57 mg/mL). The Allium cepa test was used to determine the potential cytotoxic, genotoxic and toxic gum at four concentrations (C1 = 0.56 mg/Ml, C2 = 0.11 mg/ml, C3 = 1.66 mg/ml and C4 = 2.22 mg/ml) by means of microscopic analysis, which assesses the mitotic index (MI) and Chromosome Aberrations (CA) and macroscopic structure and assessing the growth of roots. The macrodilution broth method was ineffective for its intended purpose, as the gum became turbid medium itself impossible to observe whether there was inhibition of microbial growth. In the agar diffusion technique, purified gum inhibited the growth of the fungus C. albicans MIC of 150 mg/mL, and the crude resin showed no activity against any of the tested microorganisms, indicating little influence of the purification method only improves the ability inhibiting the growth of microorganisms. As to the cytotoxic as genotoxic potential presented IM parameters, AC and size of the roots significantly different from the negative control - distilled water (p <0.05 in the Mann-Whitney test) indicating that the concentration of said triggered changes in chromosome structure cells, suggesting that the use of gum is safe at concentrations below 2.22 mg/mL, these values are consistent with the macroscopic, where C4 sample also showed toxicity, but in usual concentrations (0.0056 mg/ml ), cashew gum appeared safe to use. This results confirm the potential of cashew gum comogrande candidate for substitution of gum 13 arabic in the production of solid dosage forms, minimizing costs for industry, adding value to cashew cultivation and developing the Northeast, a major producer of cashew.