Quantificação de compostos fenólicos em frações da planta Eryngium elegans (Apiaceae)

Abstract

The Eryngium elegans plant belongs to the Apiaceae family, it is a native Brazilian species that is distributed in Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, and in Brazil it is found in the South, Southeast and Midwest regions, mainly on the banks of rivers and marshes. This species is classified as a PANC (Unconventional Food Plant), that is, it can be used as a complement in food. Some studies highlight its use in popular medicine, where the roots of this plant with potential diuretic activity are used, but its chemical composition is little known. Currently, phenolic compounds have shown great relevance, mainly due to the antioxidant activity of several of their representatives. Thus, this work aimed to quantify phenolic compounds in fractions of different polarities obtained from the leaves of the E. elegans plant. Total phenolics were determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu method. The results were expressed in mg gallic acid equivalents per gram of dry extract ± standard deviation (mg g -1 ± SD). In the n-butanol fraction, 94.07 mg g-1 ± 0.74 were found, and in the ethyl acetate fraction, 156.84 mg g-1 ± 1.77. It is concluded that E. elegans has a higher phenolic content than other species of the same genus, and this is the first report of phenolic determination in this specimen.