Caracterização e avaliação de atividade antioxidante do extrato metanólico e materiais fracionados das folhas de Costus spiralis e Costus arabicus

Abstract

The present work had in mind the characterization and evaluation on the antioxidant activity of methanolic extracts and their fractionated materials obtained from Costus spiralis and Costus arabicus leafs, which are historically used in popular medicine against infections microorganisms driven and infections various metabolic syndromes. Methods involved obtaining the brute methanolic extract followed by polarity differences guided fractionation, procedure conducted in a glass column chromatography containing silica gel as solid phase and sundry solvents increasing in polarity. Phytochemical characterization occurred to identify secondary metabolites as flavonoids, tannins, saponins and triterpenes. Antioxidant measurements wore conducted according the DPPH method, determining samples capacities to eliminate free radicals. Results showcase significant variation between the antioxidant activities from the brute methanolic extract and their fractions of both plants. Ethanolic and methanolic C. spiralis’s fractions exhibited major antioxidant proprieties, with lower EC50 values, indicating higher efficiency at neutralizing free radicals. Other than that, these fractions overall antioxidant activity was observed to be higher than the brute methalonic extract’s, suggesting the fractioning method was able to separate and concentrate specific compounds in different fraction samples. The research contributed to knowing more about bioactive proprieties of C. arabicus and C. spiralis, reinforcing their potential as source for natural antioxidants. Data obtained shall contribute to subsidizing future pharmacological and biothecnological studies, aiming for applications of these compounds in phytotherapy industry.