Antioxidant activity in partially purified ritidome extracts of Caesalpinia paraguariensis (D. PARODI) BURK

SGARIGLIA, M. A.; SOBERÓN, J. R.; SAMPIETRO, D. A.; QUIROGA, E. N.; VATTUONE, M. A.

Tafi del Valle (Tucuman)

Congreso; XXIV Annual Scientific Meeting of Tucuman Biology Society; 2008

Tucuman Biology Society (publicado en Bio Cell 32 (2), A44, 2008)

Previous reports showed that infusions prepared from the bark of C. paraguariensis exert a strong free radical scavenging  activity (AO). This might explain, in part, the vulnerary properties attributed to this plant species by popular medicine. Moreover, toxicity studies showed that the infusion of C. paraguariensis is neither cytotoxic nor genotoxic. The aim of this study was to perform bioguided purification and to determine the chemical nature of the antioxidant substances present in the infusion. The lyophilized infusion was extracted with the solvents of increasing polarity (ether, chloroform and methanol). The methanolic fraction was separated by Sephadex LH20 with methanol in 12 fractions (F1-F12). The F3 fraction (with the greatest AO activity) was purified by HPLC. Ten eluates corresponding to peaks (p) 14, 15, 16, 18, 18.5, 19, 20, 22, 25 and 40 min were collected. They were analyzed by Autography with DPPH and by TLC. AO activity was localized in p16, p18, p20, p22 and p25 eluates. Such activity would be associated with flavones and/or flavonols.