Isolamento bioguiado de compostos com atividade antioxidante das folhas de Moringa oleífera

Abstract

Moringa oleifera (Moringaceae) is a plant that has wide industrial application, high nutritional value and, also, exhibits several biological activities. Used in folk medicine, M. oleifera leaves have already been shown to possess a wide variety of bioactive molecules, including phenolic componds, which are possibly responsible for the antioxidant potential of this part of the plant. Despite the growing interest in this species and, specifically, in its phytochemical potential, there are few studies about the isolation and identification of bioactive compounds present in M. oleifera leaves, especially in specimens grown in Brazil. Therefore, the aims of this work were to compare two methods for extracting bioactive componds and, than, to isolate compounds with antioxidant activity of M. oleifera leaves collected in Itajaí (Santa Catarina, Brazil) by a bioguided study. The bioguided monitoring was carried out with in vitro assays to determine the antioxidant activity: Folin-Ciocalteau reagent reduction capacity, FRAP assay, DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging methods and, also, the ORAC assay. HPLC-DAD technique was used for chemical characterization and monitoring of the isolation stages. The main practical difference between the evaluated extraction methods was the preparation of an initial hydroalcoholic extract, in the extraction process 1. From the results of the antioxidant activity determination, interpreted with the aid of statistical tools (Tukey’s test and paired t-test), it was possible to see that the potential of M. oleifera leaves varied depending on the extraction form and on the solvents used. In general, the fractions prepared from the extraction process 1 showed higher antioxidant activity and chromatographic profiles with more intense signals. Based on these results, the fraction obtained with ethyl acetate, in the extraction process 1, was selected for the bioguided isolation. The purification of this fraction on an open column of silica gel generated 61 subfractions, which, after TLC analysis, were grouped in 18. The evaluation of the antioxidant activity of grouped subfractions showed that five of them presented great potential. However, depending on the yield, only three could follow the isolation. In this step, an additional analysis was performed: the determination of the antioxidant activity by an on-line HPLC method with the ABTS•+. This technique allowed defining which of the compounds presented in each subfraction had higher potential and, therefore, would be isolated. In this way, five compounds were isolated by semipreparative HPLC, two of them were tested by the DPPH• scavenging assay. The obtained EC50 values, 30.34 and 38.72 μg/mL, are close to those found in literature for substances isolated from other natural matrices. The NMR technique allowed identifying a flavonol glucoside. The results of this work showed that M. oleifera leaves collected in Itajaí are source of phenolic compounds with antioxidant potential and, therefore, are promising for the application in cosmetics, food and pharmaceutical industries.