Genetic diversity of Solanum lycocarpum and phytochemical study to evaluate the antimicrobial activity, cytotoxic and genotoxic of alkaloids

Abstract

The use of plants for medicinal purposes to treat, cure and prevention of diseases is one of the oldest medicinal practices of humanity. The natural products biologically actives produced by plants can be used to the synthesis of a large number of drugs. Several studies have demonstrated the pharmacological potential of plants of the Solanaceae family. The genus Solanum lycocarpum is popularly known as "lobeira", a typical plant of the Brazilian Cerrado often used in folk medicine to treat epilepsy, spasms, kidney and abdominal pain, hemorrhoids, expectorant, hepatitis, diabetes and obesity control. Phytochemical analyses of this specie have demonstrated high concentrations of steroid alkaloids, and the majority solasonina, solamargine and which, in turn, are substances with the potential for anticancer and antifungal activities. The literature has reported that these alkaloids have properties to reduce DNA damage. Therefore it is important cytotoxic and genotoxic studies of these active compounds for investigation of potential mutagenic modulations caused by these substances. Moreover, these alkaloids attracted great interest from the pharmaceutical industry in the search for new antimicrobial active structures or activities complementary to conventional drugs for the treatment of mycoses. The different genotypes are been identified by molecular marker AFLP to determine the variability between plant populations. Thus, this study aims to study the genetic diversity of Solanum lycocarpum and evaluate the antimicrobial activity, cytotoxic and genotoxic of alkaloids. (AU)