Identificação dos alcalóides piperidínicos da Prosopis Juliflora oriunda de Petrolina - PE por UPLC-QTOF-MS

Abstract

The Prosopis juliflora or algaroba, as known in Brazil, is a plant that belongs to the Leguminose family, and it comes from South America countries. It was introduced to Brazil’s northeast, in the 40’s, due its high resistance against the drought, capacity of reforestation, and use of its pods as animal’s supplementary food. However, despite its characteristics and diverse uses, the species is also the cause of certain preoccupation, because it can cause environmental imbalance once it is an exotic species in a different environment; which characterizes it as an invasive species. Beside the previous aspects, the P. juliflora contains a type of organic substances that are plants’ secondary metabolites: alkaloids. The plants’ piperidine alkaloids are the supposed causers of the disease “cara torta”. The disease worries cattle producers who, in Brazil’s northeast, feed the cattle with the plants’ pods. This paper tried to perform the extraction of such substances from the leaves of the plant through liquid-liquid extraction. The extract obtained was analyzed through the UPLC-QTOF-MS technique; it permitted not only the identification of six alkaloids that had already been reported of the species, but also four alkaloids that had not been reported of the P. juliflora. Although, they were present in one species of the same family (Leguminosae): Cassia spectabilis. Besides that, the paper sought to isolate the alkaloids identified by HPLC and to perform the identification of each fraction. The register of the extract to the extratotal was also done in order to make the data useful for Embrapa Agroindústria Tropical.