“CNS action of some Latin American plants”

C. WASOWSKI; S. FERNÁNDEZ; A. C. PALADINI; M. MARDER

São Pedro, São Paulo, Brazil

Simposio; Second Internacional Joint Symposium, Chemistry, Biological and Pharmacological Properties of Medicinal Plants from the Americas.; 2004

International Organization for Chemical Sciences in Development (IOCD), Sociedade Brasileira de Química (SBQ) and CYTED

The screening of several plants used as tranquilizers detected benzodiazepine binding site ligands of flavonoid nature. The first anxiolytic natural flavonoid described was chrysin, followed by apigenin and flavone. We have recently reported the presence of the anxiolytic flavone 6-methylapigenin and of the sedative and sleep-enhancing flavonoid glycosides 2 S (-) hesperidin and linarin in valeriana species. We present here the effect on the CNS of hydro alcoholic extracts of four Latin American plants and one alga used as sedatives: Lippia chiapasensis (Guatemala), Casimiroa edulis (Mexico), Macfadyena unguis-cati (Perú), Aloysia polystachya (Paraguay) and Dictyota pinnatífida (Cuba). The presence of benzodiazepine binding site ligands and the effect on thiopental-induced hypnosis in mice of the i.p. injection of crude and semi-purified extracts of all of them will be reported.