CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Our country was one of the pioneers from Mercosur to define and regulate all activities involving plant drugs (PD) and their products (preparations and phytotherapic medicines, FM) (1-4). Thus, the current regulatory, in agreement with the WHO guidelines (5, 6), sets that the guarantee of quality, safety and efficacy of the PD and its products, is based on three fundamental aspects, besides the application of GMP: 1) Botanical identification with scientific name, recognizing their morphological and micrographic characteristics (Botanical quality control). 2) Identification and quantification of the active principles (AP) if they are known or alternatively identifying against chromatographic patterns (Chemical quality control). 3) Hygienic Control, which means that the product is suitable for human consumption. When the laboratories of products based on medicinal plants have to perform the botanical and chemical quality control of native PD, face the problem of the lack or inaccessibility to botanical descriptions (morphological and micrographic) and chemical studies that identify the PA or any chemical marker. This is compounded by the lack of chromatographic patterns, especially for native plants, whose PA are unknown. The objectives of this work are: a) Collect all botanical, chemical and biological information, scientific as "traditional", existing about three species of Baccharis: two species encoded in FA VI as "carqueja": Baccharis crispa Spreng. and Baccharis articulata (Lam.) Pers (7), and a third species: B. trimera (Less) DC. b) Perform chemical profiles of PD by several chromatographic techniques, identifying if it is possible some chemical compound that allows the characterization of each species and in turn its differentiation from the other two (chemical marker). Materials and Methods: The literature search was conducted by consulting databases and secondary sources with scientific rigor, including also the "traditional" information. Botanical identification was carried out by G. Barboza, PhD (Fac. Cs. Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, UNC). After that, the appropriate drying and conservation practices were performed. From 100 g of each vegetal species (crushed aerial parts), extracts with different solvents (hexane, benzene, CHCl3, EtOH) were prepared by maceration. These extracts were used to obtain the chromatographic patterns by thin layer chromatography (TLC), paper chromatography (PC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), using different stationary and mobile phases according to the polarity of the extracts analyzed. HPLC was performed on a Varian Star Pro (Model 210, Series 04 171) equipped with a UV-V detector. Results: We carried out a systematization of the information collected about the three plants, which allowed to establish a chemical compound that is specific for each one, and therefore, characterizes the species and differences it from the other two (chemical marker). Thus, the acacetina flavonoid [1] and the diterpene bacchotricuneatina A [2] are found only in B. articulata, the pilloína flavonoid [3] is distinctive of B. crispa, and the rutine flavonoid [4] is only present in B. trimera. The presence of 1 was identified in EtOH extract of B articulata against standard (Sigma) by TLC on silica gel G254 (Merck), using three different mobile phases (8), this result was confirmed by HPLC (9). For the identification of 2, the benzene and EtOH extracts of B. articulata were analyzed by TLC against standard (Dr. Wagner) (10); this result was also confirmed by HPLC (11). Compound 3 was purified from the hexane extract of B crispa, following the methodology described in the literature (7, 12); it was subsequently characterized by TLC on silica gel G254 using four mobile phases (12), and by means of its spectrum UV-Vis in EtOH (12). We established the presence of 4 in EtOH extract of B. trimera by CP against standard (Dr. Cabrera), which was eluted with 15% HAc in Whatman No. 1, and was revealed with UV/vapor NH3-UV (11).

enviar mensaje