Planta Med 2008; 74 - PC153
DOI: 10.1055/s-0028-1084671

Differential bioactivities and metabolic profiles of Lychnophora ericoides from diverse provenances

L Gobbo-Neto 1, T Guaratini 2, C Pessoa 3, MO de Moraes 3, LV Costa-Lotufo 3, RF Vieira 4, P Colepicolo 2, NP Lopes 1
  • 1FCFRP – USP, Av. Café s/n, Ribeirão Preto-SP, 14040–903, Brazil
  • 2IQ – USP, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes 748, São Paulo-SP, 05508–900, Brazil
  • 3FM – UFC, Rua Coronel Nunes de Mello 1127, Fortaleza-Ce, 60431–970, Brazil
  • 4EMBRAPA, W3 Norte, Brasília-DF, 70770–900, Brazil

Cytotoxic and antioxidant activities of foliar extracts of Lychnophora ericoides Mart. (Asteraceae) from 7 different provenances were accessed and the results were correlated with the different eco-geographical origin and secondary chemical profiles of the plants. The secondary metabolite profiles of the leaf extracts were determined by HPLC-DAD-MS/MS, leading to the identification of 9 chlorogenic acids (CA), 5 flavonoid aglycones, 2 C-glucosylflavones (CGF) and 8 furanoheliangolide sesquiterpene lactones (STL). An extract from population (pop.) A (collected at Ibiraci-MG) exhibited a strong cytotoxic activity against the three tumor cell lines evaluated: HCT-8 [growth inhibition% (GI%) 91,7±8,4], SF-268 (GI% 95,5±0,5) and MDA-MB-435 (GI% 104,1±1,1), while extracts from the other populations presented very low GI%. The highest activity of pop. A was correlated with the presence, exclusively in this pop., of high amounts of STL, a class of compounds well known to posses such activity and ecological roles like insect antifeedant and allelopathic potential [1,2]. Pop. A also exhibited the highest antioxidant activity in the DPPH Radical Scavenging System [EC30 15,7±0,4], which might be related to its higher contents of both CA and CGF, well know as antioxidants [3,4]. Pop. A is the only one amongst those studied that grows at the border between two different types of forest (“cerrado“ and semi-deciduous forest), while the other 6 pop. grow within the interior „cerrado“ biome. This suggests a possible relationship between the higher bioactivities and an amplification of its defensive secondary metabolite biosynthesis, especially of STL. This supports the hypothesis that plants growing at the frontier between different forests might be stimulated to amplify the production and storage of defensive secondary metabolites, due to the greater number of environmental influences [5].

References: 1. Schimidt, T.J. (1999) Curr. Org. Chem. 3:577. 2. Macías, F.A. et al. (2006)J. Nat. Prod. 69:795.

3. Maruta, Y. et al. (1995)J. Agric. Food Chem. 43: 592. 4. Gobbo-Neto, L. et al. (2005) Planta Med. 71:3.

5. Gottlieb, O.R. et al. (1996) Biodiversidade: um enfoque químico-biológico, Ed. UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.