Development of green alternatives by HPLC for analysis of medicinal plants of interest to the Brazilian Health Ministry

Abstract

The concern with the environment preservation has increased sharply since the early 90s. Currently, the search for new and challenging solutions that reduce or eliminate solventes, reagents, preservatives and other chemicals that are hazrdous to human health or the environment is obvious. The Brazil and many countries have developed standards designed to ensure the effectiveness and quality of herbal medicines ("green medicine") and related services Phytotherapy. Several studies have shown promising findings of the biological activities / pharmacological herbal extracts. These facts led the Brazilian government to disclose in 2009 a list of 71 species of medicinal plants of interest, called National List of Medicinal Plants Concern Unified Health System (Relação Nacional de Plantas Medicinais de Interesse do Sistema Único de Saúde, Renisus). However, large quantities of toxic solvents are used mostly Phytochemical investigation of successive stages of fractionation and analysis. In this context, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is one of the most widely used techniques. The majority of published reports on the HPLC application employing solvents like acetonitrile and methanol. It is clear, therefore, a contradiction in the fact phytochemical studies aimed at seeking natural alternatives for treating diseases generate waste that are hazrdous to human health or the environment. In this context, this project aims to implement concepts of green chemistry in order to develop analysis methodologies to obtain "green" chromatographic profiles of plant extracts by HPLC from five species with different chemical composition of the Renisus list: Cynara scolymus, Glycine max, Lamium album, Phyllanthus niruri, Punica granatum. (AU)