Recebido em 15/1/09; aceito em 16/3/09; publicado na web em 2/4/09 BRAZILIAN ESSENTIAL OILS: GENERAL VIEW, DEVELOPMENTS AND PERSPECTIVES. Essential oils are extracted by steam distillation of plants or cold pressing of citrus fruit pericarp. They are used in food, cosmetic, personal care and pharmaceutical industries. In Brazil, oils from orange and related products contribute to near 97% to the positive commercial performance of the sector. Predatory exploitation and the availability of new sources of raw materials, with more attracting prices, changed the paradigm. Prospective studies, sustainable use of Brazilian biodiversity, domestication of exotic species with commercial relevance, the use of breeding techniques and the development of new applications for essential oils are thematic lines, usually multidisciplinary, which have been prompting the expansion of the research on essential oils. This paper presents an analysis on essential oils balance trade from 2005 to 2008 and some historical data on research and production of essential oils in Brazil.Keywords: essential oil; Brazilian market; historical and perspectives.introdUÇÃo Óleos essenciais (OE) são extraídos de plantas através da técni-ca de arraste a vapor, na grande maioria das vezes, e também pela prensagem do pericarpo de frutos cítricos, que no Brasil dominam o mercado de exportação. São compostos principalmente de mono e sesquiterpenos e de fenilpropanoides, metabólitos que conferem suas características organolépticas.Flores, folhas, cascas, rizomas e frutos são matérias-primas para sua produção, a exemplo dos óleos essenciais de rosas, eucalipto, canela, gengibre e laranja, respectivamente. Possuem grande aplicação na perfumaria, cosmética, alimentos e como coadjuvantes em medicamentos. São empregados principalmente como aromas, fragrâncias, fixadores de fragrâncias, em composições farmacêuticas e orais e comercializados na sua forma bruta ou beneficiada, fornecendo substâncias purificadas como o limoneno, citral, citronelal, eugenol, mentol e safrol. 1,2Há inúmeros conglomerados internacionais que negociam óleos essenciais, os mais importantes empregando-os como matéria-prima para a produção de aromas e fragrâncias. Neste artigo, os OE serão focalizados como produto principal e desvinculados das grandes áreas da perfumaria, cosméticos e aromas para alimentos.Há 300 OE de importância comercial no mundo, os 18 principais podem ser vistos na Tabela 1. 3O Brasil tem lugar de destaque na produção de OE, ao lado da Índia, China e Indonésia, que são considerados os 4 grandes produtores mundiais. 4 A posição do Brasil deve-se aos OE de cítricos, que são subprodutos da indústria de sucos. No passado, o país teve destaque como exportador de OE de pau-rosa, sassafrás e menta. Nos dois últimos casos, passou à condição de importador. mercado mUndial de oeDe acordo com a base de dados americana COMTRADE (United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database), os maiores consumidores de OE no mundo são os EUA (40%), a União Européia -UE (30%), sendo a França ...

In this study, we show the leishmanicidal effects of a chloroform fraction (CLF) and a purified indole alkaloid obtained from crude stem extract of Peschiera australis against Leishmania amazonensis, a causative agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the New World. In a bioassay-guided chemical fractionation, the leishmanicidal activity in CLF completely and irreversibly inhibited promastigote growth. This fraction was also active against amastigotes in infected murine macrophages. Chemical analysis of CLF identified an iboga-type indole alkaloid coronaridine as one of its major compounds. Coronaridine showed potent antileishmanial activity, inhibiting promastigote and amastigote growth. Promastigotes and amastigotes treated with CLF or coronaridine showed pronounced alterations in their mitochondria as assessed by transmission electron microscopy.

The seasonal variation of the chemical composition of the essential oil from fresh leaves of Tetradenia riparia (Hochst.) Codd grown in southern Brazil was analyzed by GC-MS, and the analgesic and antimicrobial activities of this oil were assayed. The yield of essential oil ranged from 0.17% to 0.26%, with the maximum amount in winter and the minimum in spring. The results obtained from principal components analysis (PCA) revealed the existence of high chemical variability in the different seasons. The samples were clearly discriminated into three groups: winter, autumn, and spring-summer. Samples collected during winter contained the highest percentages of calyculone (24.70%), abietadiene (13.54%), and viridiflorol (4.20%). In autumn, the major constituents were ledol (8.74%) and cis-muurolol-5-en-4-α-ol (13.78%). Samples collected in spring-summer contained the highest percentages of fenchone (12.67%), 14-hydroxy-9-epi-caryophyllene (24.36%), and α-cadinol (8.33%). Oxygenated sesquiterpenes were predominant in all the samples analyzed. The observed chemovariation might be environmentally determined by a seasonal influence. The essential oil, when given orally at a dose of 200 mg/kg, exhibited good analgesic activity on acetic acid-induced writhing in mice, inhibiting the constrictions by 38.94% to 46.13%, and this effect was not affected by seasonal variation. The antimicrobial activity of the essential oil against the bacterial strains: Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia, Proteus mirabilis, Morganella morganii, and Enterobacter cloacae, and the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans was assessed by the disc diffusion method and determination of the minimum inhibitory concentration. The results obtained, followed by measurement of the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), indicated that S. aureus, B. subtilis, and Candida albicans were the most sensitive microorganisms, showing largest inhibition, and the lowest MIC values varied from 15.6 to 31.2 µg/mL, 7.8 to 15.6 µg/mL, and 31.2 to 62.5 µg/mL, respectively.

Considering that illegal admixture of robusta coffee into high-quality arabica coffee is an important task in coffee analysis, we evaluated the use of direct-infusion electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) data combined with the partial least-squares (PLS) multivariate calibration technique as a fast way to detect and quantify arabica coffee adulterations by robusta coffee. A total of 16 PLS models were built using ESI± quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF) and ESI± Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) MS data from hot aqueous extracts of certified coffee samples. The model using the 30 more abundant ions detected by ES+ FT-ICR MS produced the most accurate coffee blend percentage prediction, and thus, it was later successfully employed to predict the blend composition of commercial robusta and arabica coffee. In addition, ESI± FT-ICR MS analysis allowed for the identification of 22 compounds in the arabica coffee and 20 compounds in the robusta coffee, mostly phenolics.

No abstract