Toward Establishing the Productive Chain for Triterpene-Based Amazonian Oleoresins as Valuable Non-Timber Forest Products

Abstract

In the Amazonian rainforest, many species of Burseraceae known locally as "breu" are explored for the medicinal and aromatic uses of their trunk exudates. This material also has a long-standing use by the forest communities in building and caulking boats as well as in the making of wooden utensils and general crafts. Breu are strongly aromatic due volatile terpenes in their composition that are separated from the crude resin by steam distillation. The remaining residue amorphous "hard resin" is primary used for application in woodworking. Despite the potential for application in paints, varnishes and odor fixatives, the commercialization of the hard resin has not surpassed the local market level. In order to achieve and establish a more valorized market for this Amazonian non-timber forest product, the existing and potential demands need to be estimated, a draft of the production chain needs to be drawn up and care needs to be taken to provide products of the highest possible quality. This study aimed to identify and organize the main issues necessary for the attainment of these goals and its value chain, and identify the technologies that would improve the quality of the Amazonian breu as a raw material. A review of the data available in the literature and the analytical techniques that could be applied to generate standards for the extraction, purification, and analysis of the hard resin fraction was made. Quality issues based on physicochemical standards might affect the productive chain by: i) helping to consolidate the appropriate methodologies for collecting and storing the raw material; ii) adding value and qualifying the primary improvement processes and iii) supporting the certification of the raw materials for commercialization. Potentiate this material to reach high-level markets might boost the production demand and improve the rain forest communities' income.

Development of a gas chromatography method for quantification of triterpenes in the commercial oleoresins from Protium species

“…Adding value to the Amazonian breu would require organization of its production niche and amelioration of the already existing initiatives aiming at exploiting it from this source (UNDP 2012;Silva et al 2016). In this context, the developing methods is an important step to qualify the raw material chemically and to propose some level of standardization for such a raw material (Siani et al 2017).…”

Bioactive Triterpenes of Protium heptaphyllum Gum Resin Extract Display Cholesterol-Lowering Potential

“…Finally, the obtained results may boost the production demand of this resin, improving the income of local rainforest communities. This, together with the application of innovative and sustainable models in the production chain, based on the use of vegetable nontimber forest products, are the base concept of the circular economy [ 110 ].…”

Chemical Composition, Enantiomeric Distribution, and Antifungal Activity of the Oleoresin Essential Oil of Protium amazonicum from Ecuador

“…Daly belongs to the Burseraceae, which is comprised of 640 species representing 18 genera throughout the world, mainly distributed in the Neotropics and North Africa [ 1 ]. The main characteristic of the Burseraceae is the exuding aromatic resin [ 2 , 3 ], which is known as “copal” in Spanish [ 4 ] and “breu” in Portuguese [ 5 ]. Protium spp.…”

“…The Yanomami people of Brazil use the resin of P. fimbriatum to treat respiratory infections [ 13 ]. Protium oleoresins have been characterized in terms of color, age, odor, as well as volatile and non-volatile chemical characteristics ( Table 1 ) [ 5 , 14 ]. Because of the importance of Protium oleoresins in traditional medicine and because no previous work had been carried out on P. amazonicum , we wished to chemically characterize the oleoresin essential oil of P. amazonicum ; this information should add to our understanding of Protium oleoresin chemistry.…”