Abstract
BackgroundThe great potential of plants as Hymenaea courbaril L (jatoba) has not yet been throughly explored scientifically and therefore it is very important to investigate their pharmacological and toxicological activities to establish their real efficacy and safety. This study investigated the cytotoxicity of xylem sap of Hymenaea courbaril L and its bioactivity against the fungi Cryptococcus neoformans species complex and dermatophytes.MethodsThe fresh xylem sap of H. courbaril was filtered resulting in an insoluble brown color precipitate and was identified as fisetin. In the filtrate was identified the mixture of fisetinediol, fustin, 3-O-methyl-2,3-trans-fustin and taxifolin, which were evaluated by broth microdilution antifungal susceptibility testing against C. neoformans species complex and dermatophytes. The fresh xylem sap and fisetin were screened for cytotoxicity against the 3T3-A31 cells of Balb/c using neutral red uptake (NRU) assay.ResultsThe fresh xylem sap and the fisetin showed higher in vitro activity than the filtrate. The xylem sap of H. courbaril inhibited the growth of dermatophytes and of C. neoformans with minimal inhibition concentration (MIC) < 256 μg/mL, while the fisetin showed MIC < 128 μg/mL for these fungi. Fisetin showed lower toxicity (IC50 = 158 μg/mL) than the fresh xylem sap (IC50 = 109 μg/mL).ConclusionNaturally occurring fisetin can provide excellent starting points for clinical application and can certainly represent a therapeutic potential against fungal infections, because it showed in vitro antifungal activity and low toxicity on animal cells.
Highlights
IntroductionThe great potential of plants as Hymenaea courbaril L (jatoba) has not yet been throughly explored scientifically and it is very important to investigate their pharmacological and toxicological activities to establish their real efficacy and safety
The great potential of plants as Hymenaea courbaril L has not yet been throughly explored scientifically and it is very important to investigate their pharmacological and toxicological activities to establish their real efficacy and safety
We have focused on the phytochemical study, cytotoxicity and antifungal activity of the fresh xylem sap of H. courbaril and its major compound fisetin (1)
Summary
The great potential of plants as Hymenaea courbaril L (jatoba) has not yet been throughly explored scientifically and it is very important to investigate their pharmacological and toxicological activities to establish their real efficacy and safety. The great potential of Scientific studies on the medicinal properties of H. courbaril revealed antimicrobial activity against Grampositive bacteria and dengue virus type-2 [4,5]. The secondary metabolites of this plant showed the presence of flavonoid fisetin as the major compound [6], probably responsible for the antimicrobial properties. According to Touil et al [12] fisetin was found to be several times less cytotoxic towards normal NIH 3T3 cells when compared to tumor cells, and this could give to this compound an important in vivo advantage in terms of therapeutic index
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