Abstract
Looking for a biotechnical potential, aqueous extracts of leaves of 12 native species used in the Mayan traditional medicine of the coastal dune and mangrove of Yucatan (Mexico) were selected to evaluate their biological activities. Rhizophora mangle and Manilkara zapota showed the highest free radical scavenging activity (3.94 ± 0.19 and 6.42 ± 0.32 μg/mL, respectively), and the highest antihypertensive activity was obtained from Solanum donianum (0.38 μg/mL). The anti-hyperglycemic activity of these species was also tested; the highest activities were registered with R. mangle. The antimicrobial activity of Malvaviscus arboreus, S. donianum, M. zapota, and R. mangle at 10% (w/v) was positive against six human pathogenic bacteria and Bonellia macrocarpa against one pathogenic fungus. Solanum donianum, M. zapota, B. macrocarpa, and R. mangle were positive against two pathogenic plant fungi. These results show that the aqueous extracts of five native plants of the Yucatan coast have potential as antioxidants, ACE inhibitors, α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitors, and as antimicrobials, which make their exploration for utilization in the agricultural and pharmaceutical industries a possibility.
Highlights
Natural products coming from plants have been an axis of the Mayan traditional medicine, and they remain regularly in use today
In the last two decades, natural products have been the aim of many investigations, and the direct use of these products has been encouraged in the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries [2, 3]
A total of 12 native species (Table 1) grown naturally on the coastal dune and mangrove were mentioned as medicinal plants by 21 ‘key informants’ (16 females and 5 males) whose age
Summary
Natural products coming from plants have been an axis of the Mayan traditional medicine, and they remain regularly in use today. Until today, the ethnomedicinal knowledge of the coastal dune and mangrove of Yucatan State, where plant species are growing with extreme climatological conditions, has not been reported. As a consequence, they produce metabolites that could have some biological activity (e.g. antioxidant, antimicrobial), which could be a biotechnological potential target in the health and agricultural sectors. The plant polyphenolic compounds and proteins have been evaluated as potential natural ACE inhibitors [5]. Another metabolic disease is diabetes mellitus characterized by hyperglycemia [6]. In the present work, looking for a biotechnological potential, the biological activities of aqueous extracts of leaves of 12 native species used in the Mayan traditional medicine from the coastal dune and mangrove of Yucatan State were evaluated
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