Pereskia aculeata Muller (Cactaceae) Leaves: Chemical Composition and Biological Activities

Abstract

The aims of this work were to study the chemical composition of the essential oil from the leaves of Pereskia aculeata and to evaluate some biological activities of three leaf extracts. The phenolic content, antioxidant activity, and in vitro antimicrobial and antifungal activities were determined. The methanol extract showed antioxidant activity (EC50 7.09 mg/mL) and high polyphenols content (15.04 ± 0.31 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/g). The petroleum ether extract exhibited potent antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, whereas the chloroform extract showed inhibitory activity against Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus. The petroleum ether and methanol extracts were more effective in inhibiting the growth of Aspergillus versicolor. The possible cytotoxicity of extracts on neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cancer cell line and the influence on adenylate cyclase (ADCY) expression was also studied. P. aculeata chloroform extract showed antiproliferative activity with an IC50 value of 262.83 µg/mL. Treatments of SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells with 100 µg/mL of methanol extract significantly reduced ADCY1 expression.

Phytochemical profile and biological activities of 'Ora-pro-nobis' leaves (Pereskia aculeata Miller), an underexploited superfood from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

“…The hexane fraction was the most active, due to its higher phenolic compound content. Souza et al (2016) reported a much lower DPPH scavenging activity (IC 50 = 7.09 mg/ml) for a methanolic extract of P. aculeata, whereas Silva, Seifert, Schiedeck, Dode, and Nora (2018) found an antioxidant activity of 44.99 g of Trolox/kg of fresh plant when also assessing a methanolic leaf extract of P. aculeata.…”

“…The total phenolic content found in our hydromethanolic extract were relevant (23.75 mg/g), with the amount of phenolic acids and flavonoids being almost equivalent. Total phenolic contents based on milligram of gallic acid equivalent (GAE) per gram of extract of different solvent extracts of P. aculeata leaves were estimated by Souza et al (2016). The best phenolic content was found for the methanol extract (15.04 mg GAE/g), followed by the ether extract (11.78 mg GAE/g) and chloroform extract (5.17 mg GAE/g).…”

“…It belongs to the Cactaceae family and Pereskioideae subfamily, is Native to South America and adapted only to low altitudes (Pinto, Duque, et al, 2015;Silva et al, 2017). Its succulent leaves are a great source of proteins (26% w/w), in this regard it is quite superior to other vegetables customarily used as foods, such as bean, corn or kale, and also presents important levels of minerals, dietary fiber, vitamins A and C, besides folic acid (Souza et al, 2016).…”

“…Furthermore, there are reports of the utilization of some species of the genus Pereskia as a natural medicine against cancer (Pinto et al, 2012). In the past five years, several biological activities have been attributed to P. aculeata leaf extracts, including in vivo topical anti-inflammatory activity in models of acute and chronic dermatitis (Pinto, Machado, et al, 2015), wound healing activity (Pinto et al, 2016) and antinociceptive activity (Pinto, Duque, et al, 2015), in vitro T antioxidant (Pinto et al, 2012;Sousa et al, 2014), and antimicrobial potentials (Souza et al, 2016), added to the antiproliferative activity against leukemia, neuroblastoma, and breast cancer cell lines (Pinto et al, 2012;Souza et al, 2016).…”

“…In spite of the aforementioned studies evidencing the nutritional and ethnopharmacological relevance of ora-pro-nobis leaves, information on their phytochemical constitution remains limited. The majority of the papers that performed chemical evaluation contemplated the amino acids and phytosterol profiles, also focusing on its essential oil (Pinto & Scio, 2014;Pinto, Machado, et al, 2015;Souza et al, 2016;Zem, Helm, Henriques, Cabrini, & Zuffellato-Ribas, 2017). A few works have indicated that phenolic compounds and carotenoids are the major antioxidant constituents of P. aculeata leaves (Agostini-Costa, Wondraceck, Rocha, & Silva, 2012;Pinto et al, 2012;Pinto, Duque, et al, 2015), however, to our best knowledge, an advanced characterization of its phenolic constitution is lacking.…”