Bioactive compounds and scavenging capacity of extracts from different parts ofVismia caulifloraagainst reactive oxygen and nitrogen species

Abstract

Context: Vismia cauliflora A.C.Sm. [Hypericaceae (Clusiaceae)] is a plant from Amazonian forest. It is used by Amerindians to treat dermatosis and inflammatory processes in the skin and has been considered an interesting source of bioactive compounds. Objective: We evaluated the scavenging capacity of extracts from V. cauliflora (leaf, branch, stem bark, flower, and whole fruit) against reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen species (RNS), namely, superoxide radical (O . The identification and the quantification of phenolic compounds and carotenoids were carried out by HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS and HPLC-DAD, respectively. Results: (À)-Epicatechin and proanthocyanidin dimers and trimer were the major phenolic compounds tentatively identified in leaf, branch, stem bark, and flower extracts, while dihydroxybenzoic acids were the major compounds in whole fruit extracts. All-trans-zeinoxanthin and all-trans-b-carotene were the major carotenoids tentatively identified in leaf extracts. All extracts of V. cauliflora showed high efficiency against all tested ROS and RNS, although flower and stem bark extracts exhibited the most remarkable scavenging capacity, especially for NO and ONOO À . Discussion and conclusion: Vismia cauliflora has great potential to be used in the development of phytopharmaceutical products due to its characteristic of being a promising source of bioactive compounds with high antioxidant properties.

Stem bark and flower extracts ofVismia caulifloraare highly effective antioxidants to human blood cells by preventing oxidative burst in neutrophils and oxidative damage in erythrocytes

“…In this study, both parts of the plant showed a remarkable capacity to decrease the neutrophils' oxidative burst as induced by PMA in a concentration-dependent manner (Figure 1a), with IC 50 values lower than 2.1 ± 0.2 mg/mL (Table 1). These results corroborate our previous work, which stem bark and flower extracts of V. cauliflora demonstrated the highest efficiency against some relevant ROS generated in chemical systems (Ribeiro et al, 2014).…”

“…Stem bark and flower extracts of V. cauliflora clearly demonstrated high capacity to scavenge O À 2 and inhibited the oxidation of MCLA with an IC 50 value below 15 ± 1 mg/mL (Table 1 and Figure 1b). The scavenging capacity of stem bark and flower extracts of V. cauliflora against O À 2 in this cellular model also corroborates the antioxidant efficiency of these extracts, which was reported by Ribeiro et al (2014) in a cell-free system with similar IC 50 values (10.3 and 10.7 mg/mL for stem bark and flower extracts, respectively).…”

“…The stem bark and flower extracts of V. cauliflora showed a remarkable capacity to inhibit the oxidation of APF, at relevant low concentrations (Figure 1d). Previous results of stem bark and flower extracts of V. cauliflora obtained by our research group using cell-free HOCl-generating systems (IC 50 value of 2.6-3.6 mg/mL) (Ribeiro et al, 2014) strongly corroborate the antioxidant effect found in this cellular assay with PMA-stimulated neutrophils.…”

“…The maximum inhibition of Amplex red oxidation was 45.5 ± 0.5% achieved using 10 mg/mL of stem bark and 42.7 ± 0.4% for 40 mg/mL of flower extracts of V. cauliflora; an increase in both extract concentrations did not increase the percentage of inhibition against this ROS (Figure 1c). It is interesting to notice that in the chemical antioxidant assay related to H 2 O 2 , high amounts of V. cauliflora extracts were required to achieve the IC 50 value (106.4 mg/mL of flower and 381 mg/mL of stem bark extracts) (Ribeiro et al, 2014). DOI: 10.3109/13880209.2014.1001407 Another important ROS produced by neutrophils is HOCl, and the reaction is catalyzed by MPO at sites of inflammation (Aruoma, 1997).…”

“…Based on this traditional and popular use and also the knowledge gap related to this promising Amazonian plant, our research group recently carried out a screening study in relation to the in vitro scavenging capacities of extracts from V. cauliflora plant (leaf, branch, stem bark, flower, and whole fruit) against reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen species (RNS) (Ribeiro et al, 2014). In that study, stem bark and flower extracts of V. cauliflora were considered as promising sources of antioxidant compounds, since they showed an efficient scavenging activity against superoxide radical (O À 2 ), hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), hypochlorous acid (HOCl), singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ), nitric oxide ( NO), and peroxynitrite anion (ONOO À ).…”