Atividade biológica e obtenção de um fitocosmético do óleo essencial e de extratos de Aniba parviflora (Meisn) Mez. (LAURACEAE

Abstract

Aniba parviflora is a native plant from the Amazon region, and belongs to the Lauraceae family. Like other species of this family and gender, it is an aromatic plant, producer of essential oils, but with few biological properties described on the literature. Once the plants are sources of bioactive chemicals, there's a huge demand by cosmetics, pharmaceutical and food industries for new sources of compounds with commercial appeal. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate biological activities and the cytotoxic potential of essential oil and extracts from A. parviflora in order to employ it in the formulation of a phytocosmetic, therefore favoring the knowledge of biological properties of a native plant from the Amazon region and the exploitation of its natural resources in a sustainable approach. The essential oil extraction was performed through hydrodistillation using Clevenger apparatus. The extracts were prepared by cold maceration using ethanol as solvent, and the partitions were obtained through liquid-liquid partition, first using a water and ethanol mixture, followed by n-hexane, dichloromethane and ethyl acetate. It was used leaves and thin stems of A. parviflora. The investigated biological properties were antimicrobial, by using agar diffusion and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) methods; antioxidant, by free radical DPPH· (2,2-diphenyl-1picrylhydrazyl) scavenging, measuring the absorbance decrease; and cytotoxity, using cell cultures. Only the essential oils from A. parviflora shown to be active against two of the tested bacteria strains (S. aureus e E. faecalis) with inhibition halos presenting diameters below 11 mm. The MIC was found only at the higher concentrations tested (4.0 and 2.0 mg/mL). Regarding antioxidant activity, only the extracts and its liquid-liquid partitions were active, with the best results found for crude extracts, ethyl acetate and hydroalcoholic partitions, presenting antioxidant potential 3 to 4 times less efficient than the standard acid ascorbic. Essential oils, extracts and its partitions from A. parviflora showed no cytotoxicity on cell cultures at 50 mg/mL. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the bioactive samples from A. parviflora showed in their chemical composition the presence of tannins, flavonoids, saponins and terpenes. Among the terpenoids it was found linalool, compound with many interesting activities previously described, which was found as the main component of the essential oils. Others bioactive compounds, such as espatunelol and caryophyllene were also found. Considering these finding results, it was proposed a cosmetic formulation (body emulsion), using the essential oil and a glycolic extract of A. parviflora, which was subjected to preliminary tests of stability. Through a fractionated experimental design it was proposed eight formulations of oil/water emulsions by varying the concentration of the components: base, glycolic extract (obtained from the hydroalcoholic partition diluted in propylene glycol), glycerin and vegetable oil, in order to assess the influence of these factors on the physical-chemical and organoleptic properties of the phytocosmetic. Results showed that the base was the factor which most influenced the emulsion properties, and that only the formulations kept in the dark at room temperature remained stable at the preliminary stability tests. Therefore, with this work it was possible to conclude that A. parviflora has the potential to be exploited by the cosmeceutical industry, and other biological activities should be investigated.

Keywords: Antioxidant, Antimicrobial, Cytotoxicity; Cosmetic.