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RESUMO: "Atividade hipoglicemiante de duas espécies de Bauhinia brasileira: Bauhinia forfi cata L. and Bauhinia monandra Kurz.". Extratos aquosos das folhas de Bauhinia forfi cata L. e Bauhinia monandra Kurz (10% p/v) foram testados em camundongos normoglicêmicos, objetivando averiguar a sua atividade hipoglicemiante. Ambos os extratos mostraram atividade hipoglicemiante na metodologia empregada. Ainda, foi possível isolar de B. forfi cata L. dois fl avonóides, quercetina-3,7-O-dirhamnosido e kaempferol-3,7-O-dirhamnosido, sendo as estruturas estabelecidas por técnicas clássicas de RMN. Apenas o derivado da quercetina foi identifi cado no extrato aquoso de Bauhinia monandra por CLAE.Unitermos: Bauhinia forfi cata, Bauhinia monandra, Leguminosae, atividade hipoglicemiante, fl avonoides, CLAE. ABSTRACT:The hypoglycemic activity of aqueous extracts from Bauhinia forfi cata L. and Bauhinia monandra Kurz leaves (10% w/v) was evaluated in normoglycemic mice. Both extracts have shown hypoglycemic activity using this methodology. It was also possible to isolate two fl avonoids from B. forfi cata L., 3,7-di-O-α-rhamnopyranosylquercetin and 3,7-di-O-α-rhamnopyranosylkaempferol (kaempferitrin), whose structures were elucidated by usual NMR techniques. Only the quercetin derivative was identifi ed in B. monandra aqueous extract by HPLC.

The project encompasses plants from the following families: Palmae, Lamiaceae, Acanthaceae, Leguminosae and Gesneriaceae. Regarding the pharmacology, several models have been used like antinociceptive, antiinflammatory, antioxidant, molluscicidal, anti-diabetes, anti-microbial and nitric oxide production inhibition. Results showed that utilizing ethnopharmacological information is a very important way to search for new bioactive molecules. It is noteworthy to mention the activity of Açaí fruit extracts in the inhibition of nitric oxide production. It was also possible to identify flavonoids responsible for the antidiabetic activity in plants belonging to the family Leguminosae. Acanthaceae extracts showed important antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities, as they are very rich in steroids and triterpenes. The same could be said about plants belonging to Lamiaceae that gave several examples of this kind of pharmacological property due to its steroid and triterpenoid compounds. One specie of Lamiaceae also produced a great amount of dihydroxylated triterpenoids with great molluscicidal potencial. Palmae species, rich in fatty acids and steroids led to enriched extracts responsible for the anti-BPH activities. Plants belonging to Gesneriaceae were antioxidant due to their flavonoid content. Polar extracts and isolated molecules, isolated from many species were able to donate hydrogen radical to DPPH.