PHARMACOBOTANICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF COMMERCIAL SAMPLES BASED ON "SPIRULINA"

ELISA PETENATTI; RAÚL ANDRES GIL; MARIA VIRGINIA PRINCIPE

Jornada; XXXV Reunión Científica Anual de la Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo; 2017

Dietary supplements are products formulated to improve nutritional intake unsatisfied in the diet of healthy people. In recent decades there has been an increase in its use, thus increasing the number of reports on patients who have suffered harmful effects on their health. World Health Organization (WHO) has established the need to determine quality control for crude vegetable drugs by virtue of the influence of variability factors. The market for these products shows great complexity, which makes it essential to determine their authenticity and confirm their quality. It is proposed to taxonomically characterize commercial samples of "Spirulina? in order to contribute to an effective quality control of these products. The samples were obtained in pharmacy and commercial herbal shop, conditioned, pulverized and observed in Optical Microscope (light / dark field), with interferential phase contrast (DIC-Normansky) and Scanning Electron Microscopy. The sampling procedure was carried out according to the Argentine Pharmacopoeia (2010). From the study of 20 commercial samples that have been able to determine that correspond to both microalgae and cyanobacteria. 60% is commercialized as tablets, 25% as capsules and 15% powder. Ninety percent of the samples corresponded to Arthrospira maxima Setchell et N.L. Gardner, 4% to Arthrospira platensis Gomont (Microcoleaceae Family) and 5% to Chlorella vulgaris Beyerinck (Chorellaceae Family) and 1% to a mixture, added or not excipients. It is concluded that most of the products exposed very good quality.