Bioprospecção das atividades biológicas de palmeiras (Arecaceae) nativas do estado do Tocantins e estudos químicos de compostos ativos contra patógenos humano

Abstract

Brazil is considered the country that own the highest biodiversity.This thesis deals with the evaluation of antimicrobial potential and chemical characterization of the compounds that are present in the extracts obtained from the following palm trees: Babaçu (Attalea speciosa), Buriti (Mauritia flexuosa) and Macaúba (Acrocomia aculeata), based on the conservation of biodiversity with the preservation of local communities cultural assets. In the contextualization, it is presented a general introduction, the main objectives and reasoning of the work as well as a brief description of the literature review. In the article 1, studies on the palm leaf showed that the ethanolic extracts obtained did not present significant antimicrobial activity against the tested microorganisms by the disc diffusion test. The phytochemical analysis of those extracts indicated the presence of of important groups such as: tannins, flavonoids, catechins, steroids, triterpenoids and saponins. Gas chromatography (GC-MS) confirmed the presence of terpenes and fatty acids of economic importance and the compounds were identified, among them: linoleic (omega-6) and linolenic (omega-3) acids. In the article 2, the ethanolic extracts obtained from the pulp and the bark of the Buriti (M. flexuosa) fruits were identified through gas chromatography and the presence of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids was determined. This fact justified the antimicrobial activities performed by the well diffusion and microdilution methods, which were performed against bacteria that are human pathogens E. faecalis, E. coli, P. aeruginosa and S. aureus. The results of this study demonstrated that the bark extract showed better inhibition response for the tested microorganisms, but in lower concentrations than the pulp extract. This makes the extract a potential candidate for the prospection of new drugs. In the article 3, the study was made with the ethanolic extracts obtained from the fruit (almond and pulp) and the inflorescences of the Macaúba (A. aculeata) palm tree. The phytochemical tests have indicated the presence of organic acids only in the pulp and in the inflorescence, these extracts were confirmed by GC-MS analyzis. The ethanolic extract obtained from the inflorescence was the only one that presented antibacterial activity by the well diffusion method against the bacteria: E. faecalis, E. coli and S. aureus and by the method of microdilution against the bacteria: E. coli and S. aureus, which demonstrates the potential of the extract as an antimicrobial agent. The results presented herein are a novelty, since those plant substrates were not yet studied in depth.