Estudo de validação de mesocarpo de Attalea speciosa Mart. ex. Spreng.: aspectos da etnofarmacologia e química.

Abstract

The increasing rise in the consumption of plants and / or their products as therapeutic resources has stimulated the regulation of the use of Phytotherapy. But the offer of this therapy requires the guarantee of the access of the population to quality products, through the validation studies of the species. In this sense, the ethnobiological (ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological) studies have provided important subsidies, which allow the investigation of the vegetal resources used therapeutically by the population. Also noteworthy are to develop chemical studies, which provide important parameters for quality control from the raw material to the final product for dispensing. Thus, this study aims at ethnopharmacological and chemical analysis of Attalea speciosa Mart. Ex Spreng. (Babaçu), because it represents a plant species of great occurrence in the state of Maranhão, widely used popularly for several therapeutic purposes, aiming at an effective contribution in the validation of the species. The ethnopharmacological approach through semi-structured interviews allowed us to verify that Attalea speciosa represents a plant species widely used in the study sample for therapeutic purposes, especially for women over 57 years of age, with the use of a fortifier being predominant. To carry out the chemical study, the mesocarp of babaçu, acquired in Arari and Esperantinópolis (Maranhão) and Fortaleza (Ceará), representing the Amazon, Cerrado and Caatinga biomes respectively, was submitted to standard extraction to obtain hydroalcoholic extracts of babassu), Followed by reactions of phytochemical characterization, through chromatographic methods and chemical reactions. Phytochemical screening confirmed the presence of phenolic compounds, saponins, condensed tannins, steroids, flavonoids and catechins. The presence of the substances rutin, myricitrin, isoquercetin, vitexin, catechin and, with emphasis, the epicatechin, were evidenced by thin layer chromatography (CCD) and high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with an ultraviolet detector (CLAE-UV-Vis). The analysis of socioeconomic data evidenced a difference between the profile pertinent to the users of plants for medicinal purposes and those of those who make therapeutic use of babassu, besides therapeutic uses of the metabolic and nutritional categories. The chemical profile revealed similarity to the extracts of the babassu mesocarp from different biomes, suggesting epicatechin as an analytical marker for the species.