Atividade moluscicida de óleos essenciais de plantas aromáticas da região Amazônica maranhense

Abstract

“Molluscicide activity of essential oils from aromatic plants maranhense Amazon region”. Schistosomiasis is one of the most important endemics and widespread diseases in the world with closely linked occurrence to environmental conditions precarious. The parasite responsible for this disease, Schistosoma mansoni, requires the participation of Biomphalaria snails to complete their life cycle. According to the World Health Organization, one of the ways to combat this disease is to perform the mollusc control to avoid the helminth’s life cycle. This study aimed to evaluate the molluscicidal activity of essential oils of herbs occurring in Amazon area of Maranhão, Brazil and characterize the chemical composition and toxicity from non-target organisms of these oils to point viable and sustainable alternative to control the schistosomiasis that is an endemic disease in several Brazilian states, including the state of Maranhão. Essential oils were extracted from the aerial parts of plant harvested in the Rio Parnaíba National Park, Alto Parnaíba – MA, by hydrodistillation in Clevenger-type apparatus during a period of three hours. The chemical composition of these essential oils was analyzed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Among the collected species, the essential oils with a yield above 0,7% were selected to our study. The molluscicidal activity of each essential oil was tested at five different concentrations against Biomphalaria glabrata following the standard method recommended by World Health Organization (1983). The toxicity assessment was carried out against non-target organisms, zebrafish through static method, without replacement water, standardized by NBR 15088. The results were expressed by lethal concentrations with 95% confidence intervals and calculated using a probit regression model, and the data were submitted to analysis of variance followed by Tukey test. Essential oils of species Eugenia punicifolia, Hyptis dilatata, Lippia gracilis and Lippia acitidens were characterized by the predominance of monoterpene compounds. In the other hand, the essential oil of FG20151 showed no monoterpenes and predominance of sesquiterpenes oxygenates. All evaluated essential oils showed bioactivity against B. glabrata with LC90 values between 27.41 and 182.33 µg/mL. Although the essential oils studied exhibited acute toxicity to zebrafish fish in lethal concentrations molluscicide, they were less toxic when compared to the toxicity of the synthetic commercial Bayluscide molluscicide. Thus, these results show that these species have the potential to be used as sources of bioactivity compounds with molluscicide property. The challenge is to promote innovation in the field of neglected diseases, that needs investment and research with satisfactory return.