ANTIOXIDANT AND ANTIINFLAMMATORY ACTIVITIES AND TOXICITY OF EXTRACTS OBTAINED FROM FOUR SPECIES OF FABIANA, THAT GROW IN ARGENTINE PUNA

CUELLO S.; ZAMPINI I.C; ALBERTO M. R.; ORDOñEZ R.M; ISLA M.I

Simposio; V SIMPÓSIO IBEROAMERICANO DE PLANTAS MEDICINALES; 2010

UNIVALI

Introduction: Bioprospecting in remote and extreme zones, virtually unexplored, let to know plant species that to survive produces a chemical arsenal potentially interesting from the point of view of biotechnology. We previously conducted a biological survey of extremophile plants that grow to over 3000 msnm in the Puna Argentina. Fabiana bryoides, Fabiana densa, Fabiana patagonica, Fabiana punensis were chosen to determine the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities and the toxicity for safe use. Materials y Methods: Maceration and decoction were prepared. Antioxidant activity was determined by ABTS, DPPH assays and B carotene bleaching. Anti-inflammatory activity was determined by LOX and hyaluronidase inhibition. Toxicity was determined by  Salmonella mutagenicity test using TA98 and TA 100. Results and discussion: Our findings showed that the extracts from all assayed Fabiana had interesting antioxidant activity, being more active the hydroalcoholic than the aqueous extracts (SC50 values of 1.8 to 19 mg GAE/ml). In general, the ethanolic extract of F. punensis exhibited the best activity while the aqueous extract of F. bryoides displayed the lowest activity. In the â-Carotene assay, all the extracts showed CD50 values (from 1.00 to 5 µg/ml) lower than the BHT (7 mg/ml), known antioxidant compound, used as control. A positive correlation (p˂0.05) between total phenolic compounds and the antioxidant capacity of alcoholic extracts determined by ABTS, DPPH and â-Carotene assays (R2= 0.9979, 0.9722, 0.9192, respectively) was observed. All Fabiana extracts inhibited the lipoxygenase enzyme. LOX are sensitive to antioxidants, and the most common way of their action may consist in inhibition of lipid hydroperoxide formation due to scavenging of lipidoxy- or lipid peroxy-radicals formed in course of enzymic peroxidation. This could limit the availability of lipid hydroperoxide substrate necessary for the catalytic cycle of LOX. None of the plant extracts were mutagenic in TA98 or in TA100 strain under the conditions used in this assay. Conclusion:These findings seem to justify the use of the plant in traditional South America medicine in the treatment of oxidative stress and inflammation, including arthritic conditions