Nutraceutical Properties of Herbal Infusions from Six Native Plants of Argentine Patagonia

ASSEF, Y.; GONZÁLEZ, S. B.; GASTALDI, BRUNO; SILVA SOFRÁS, F. M.; MARINO, G.; CATALÁN, C. A. N.

PLANT FOODS FOR HUMAN NUTRITION

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2018 vol. 73 p. 180 - 188

0921-9668

Six native plants of South America traditionally consumed in the Patagonian region (southern Argentina andChile), namely: Adesmia boronioides Hook. f., Apium australe Thouars, Buddleja globosa Hope, Drimysandina (Reiche) R. Rodr. & Quezada, Dysphania multifida L. and Solidago chilensis Meyen wereinvestigated to determine the nutraceutical properties of infusions of their aerial parts. The infusions werecharacterized in terms of their antioxidant activity, phenolic and flavonoid content, profile of phenoliccompounds, general toxicity and cytotoxicity on two different human cell lines: T84 (derived from coloncancer) and HTR8/SVneo (not derived from cancer). Twenty-nine compounds, mainly phenolic acids andflavonoids, were identified. This is the first analysis of phenolic compounds in infusions from native plantsof Patagonia. D. andina, B. globosa and S. chilensis showed high levels of antioxidants, even higher thanthose of Green Tea. The content of phenolic compounds correlated significantly with the antioxidant activityof the samples analyzed. The toxicity test indicated that the use of A. australe, B. globosa and D. multifidaseems safe, but that a moderate consumption is suggested for A. boronioides, D. andina and S. chilensis untilmore exhaustive and long-term results are available. Moreover, A. boronioides and S. chilensis showedanticancer potential due to their antiproliferative activity on human cancer cell lines