Este artigo descreve a caracterização por CLAE-DAD-EM/EM e CLAE-DEC dos perfis de metabólitos secundários de extratos das folhas de Lychnophora ericoides Mart. de diferentes procedências e suas propriedades citotóxicas e antioxidantes. Extratos foliares de populações representando sete diferentes localidades foram avaliados quanto à atividade antioxidante pelo sistema DPPH e à atividade citotóxica em três linhagens tumorais. Os extratos foram eletroquimicamente caracterizados por CLAE-DEC e seus metabólitos secundários majoritários foram identificados por CLAE-DAD-EM e CLAE-DAD-EM/EM. Um metabolismo secundário defensivo amplificado, juntamente com as mais altas bioatividades antioxidantes e citotóxicas, foi encontrado para as plantas coletadas na interface entre dois tipos de vegetação. Estes resultados fornecem apoio adicional para a hipótese de que plantas ocorrendo na interface entre dois ecossistemas podem ser estimuladas a amplificar sua produção e armazenamento de metabólitos secundários defensivos, devido ao maior número de influências ambientais. This paper reports HPLC-DAD-MS/MS and HPLC-ECD characterisation of secondary metabolite profiles of Lychnophora ericoides Mart. leaf extracts from different provenances and their cytotoxic and antioxidant properties. Leaf extracts from populations representing seven different locations were evaluated for antioxidant activity by the DPPH radical scavenging system and activity towards cellular growth in three tumor cell lines. The extracts were electrochemically analysed by HPLC-ECD and their main secondary metabolites were identified by HPLC-DAD-MS and HPLC-DAD-MS/MS. An amplified defensive secondary chemistry, together with maximal cytotoxic and antioxidant bioactivities, were found for plants collected at the interface between two types of forest. These findings furnish additional support for the hypothesis that plants occurring at the interface between two forests ecosystems might be stimulated to amplify their own production and storage of defensive secondary metabolites due to the greater number of environmental influences.Keywords: Lychnophora ericoides, secondary metabolite infra-specific variation, hyphenated techniques, cytotoxic activity, antioxidant activity
IntroductionThe genus Lychnophora (Asteraceae, Vernonieae) is restricted to the Brazilian "cerrado", the Brazilian savannas.1,2 Traditional medicine employs alcohol and water-alcohol preparations of leaves and root powder from several Lychnophora species for the treatment of wounds, inflammation and pain. 3,4 Among Lychnophora species, L. ericoides Mart. is the most widely used in traditional medicine. 3,4 This species occurs in small and well delimited Gobbo-Neto et al. 751 Vol. 21, No. 4, 2010 microendemic populations, usually containing between 20-50 adult individuals in a 100-200 m 2 area, and occurring in a particular type of high altitude, rocky field found in the Brazilian "cerrado". These fields are known as "campos rupestres". 1 Previous phytochemical investigation of L. ericoides le...