Libidibia ferrea (jucá), a Traditional Anti-Inflammatory: A Study of Acute Toxicity in Adult and Embryos Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Abstract

The plant species Libidibia ferrea (Mart. ex Tul.) LP Queiroz var. ferrea basionym of Caesalpinia ferrea (Mart. ex Tul.) is used in various regions of Brazil in folk medicine in the treatment of several health problems, especially in acute and chronic inflammatory processes. Most of the preparations employed are alcoholic. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the acute toxicity of the hydroethanolic extract of fruits of Libidibia ferrea (EHEFLf) in zebrafish, emphasizing the possible changes in the organic-cellular level of the gills, liver, kidneys, and intestine and on embryos. The result obtained by LC-M/MS from EHEFLf indicated a high concentration of possible polyhydroxylated substances. EHEFLf, at a dose of 2 g/kg orally, produced non-significant alterations of the analyzed organs. However, for embryos, the treatment with different concentrations demonstrated heart toxicity that was concentration-dependent. There is no evidence of a correlation of the observed effects with the phytochemical composition, and considering the species of animal used, it can be suggested that the oral use of L. ferrea hydroethanolic extract has an acceptable degree of safety for use as an oral medicinal product. and embryo results have shown significant affinity to the heart; however, it is perceived to be related to the concentrations used.

Culture matters: A systematic review of antioxidant potential of tree legumes in the semiarid region of Brazil and local processing techniques as a driver of bioaccessibility

“…ex Tul.) L. P. Queiroz Bark Phenolic compounds [39,40], tannin, flavonoid, and coumarin [40], gallic acid (phenolic acid), quinic acid (phenolic acid), kaempferol (flavonoid) [41,42], ellagic acid (phenolic acid) [43], tannins [44], catequin (flavonoid) [41], and epicatechin (flavonoid) [45] Branch Phenolic compounds, flavonoids, triterpenes, and saponins [46] Fruits Phenolic compounds [42,[46][47][48][49][50][51], flavonoids, triterpenes, saponins [46], tannins, catechin (tannin), epicatechin (tannin) [42,44,45,52], galloylquinic acid (tannin), galloyl-HHDP-hex (tannin), brevifolin carboxylic acid (tannin), valoneic acid dilactone (tannin), ellagic acid derivative (ellagic acid hex-) (phenolic acid), and dihydroisovaltrate [49], ellagic acid (phenolic acid), gallic acid (phenolic acid) [47,49,[53][54][55][56] Leaves Phenolic compounds [46,57], flavonoids, terpenes, saponins [46,58], alkaloids, cinnamic derivatives, heptacosane (alkane) [58], tannins [57,58], quercetin (flavonoid) [59], ellagic acid (phenolic acid), gallic acid (phenolic acid) [51,60] Seeds Ellagic acid (phenolic acid) [43] Dioclea grandiflora Mart. ex Benth…”

Caesalpinia ferrea C. Mart. (Fabaceae) Phytochemistry, Ethnobotany, and Bioactivities: A Review

“…LC-HRMS/MS analysis of the hydromethanolic fruit extract revealed the presence of phytochemicals such as gallic acid, galloyl-glucose ester, gallic acid methyl glycoside, hexose, di- O -galloyl-d-hexose, corilagin, ellagic acid, eriodictyol- O -hexoside and naringenin- O -hexoside [ 1 ].…”

“…No behavioral changes were observed through toxicological tests using adult zebrafish ( Danio rerio ) as a model organism when these were exposed to the C. ferrea fruit ethanolic extract, however, histopathological analyzes of different tissues showed changes in their gills, intestines, and livers. In contrast, assays using 25, 50, and 125 mg/L concentrations of the extract showed embryonic lethality rates of 30, 33.3, and 10%, respectively, while higher concentrations (250 and 500 mg/L) triggered edema in the heart, yolk sac and scoliosis [ 1 ]. Meanwhile, the bark hydroalcoholic extract showed an LC 50 of 822.6334 µg/mL in the toxicity evaluation assay over Artemia salina L., this being considered a low toxicity [ 81 ].…”

“…Caesalpinia ferrea C. Mart , formerly known as Libidibia ferrea , is a native and endemic species of Brazil, belonging to the Fabaceae family, popularly known as “Jucá” or “Pau-ferro”, and with several phytogeographic domain distributions, including the Cerrado, Caatinga, and Atlantic Forest [ 1 ].…”

Zebrafish as an Emerging Model System in the Global South: Two Decades of Research in Brazil

“…80 Moreover, in the last few years, many transgenic, knockdown and mutant lineages have been created for pharmacological studies. 77,80 In Brazil, the zebrafish has been used for preclinical analysis of cancer drugs, [81][82][83][84] toxicological analysis of medicinal plant extracts, [85][86][87] and mainly in studies on several antipsychotic drugs. [88][89][90] A number of studies in this area focus on the toxicological effects of natural toxins, such as cyanotoxins 91,92 and cnidarian toxins 93,94 ; the latter and snake venom toxins may be useful for new drug development.…”