Study of polar extracts of the Eriocaulaceae by coupled techniques

Abstract

Techniques coupled to High Performance Liquid Chromatography - Photodiode Array Detector (HPLC-PDA) has been effectively used in an attempt to establish the levels of the main species of secondary metabolites in plant extracts. The importance of this technique has also been demonstrated with the advance of technology, for new forms of couplings have been developed as the coupling Liquid Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry HPLC/MS (High Performance Liquid Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry), allowing on-line analysis of various complex matrices. Mass spectrometry offers further possibilities as the coupling between two stages of analysis (MS / MS), which is one of the most used. Our research group has studied species Eriocaulaceae (everlasting) for over two decades, resulting in the isolation and identification of a hundred molecules, some novel in the literature with antioxidant properties, cytotoxic, antiulcer, antiinflammatory diseases bowel, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Therefore, this project aims to study plant extracts belonging to Eriocaulaceae coupled by techniques such as HPLC/PDA, HPLC/MS and Flow Injection Analysis - Electrospray Ionization - Ion Trap - Mass Spectrometry (FIA-ESI-IT-MSn), which allow a qualitative and quantitative analysis quickly and effectively, allowing the identification of polar metabolites present in extracts species proposed for study in this research project. The evergreen plants are increasingly exploited commercially, both in the domestic market and internationally. However, most of it is endemic in Brazil and runs a serious risk of extinction. The major difficulty in studying chemically extracts of these species is the low mass offered to perform the step phytochemical and get mass quantities necessary to perform biological assays. But the studies of chemical species need to be continued, since there are still hundreds of species of no studies. We intend, as far as possible, study the largest number of species Eriocaulaceae, but studies of some species are already started in our laboratory for students of graduation and Master as Paepalanthus giganteus, Paepalanthus geniculatus, Tonina fluviatilis and integrating Actinocephalus divaricatus. (AU)