Abstract
This study investigates the variations in the chemical profiles and biological activities (antioxidant and cytotoxic) of Eplingiella fruticosa from the state of Sergipe, an endemic species from the Northeast region of Brazil. The essential oils were extracted from six populations by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC/MS-FID. Cluster analysis was performed with the data of the constituents of the essential oils, and then a dissimilarity matrix, based on Euclidean distances, and a dendrogram, through the Ward clustering method, were constructed. The antioxidant activity of the essential oils was tested by different assays (DPPH, ABTS, β-carotene, and FRAP), and cytotoxic activity was tested by the SRB assay. The compounds found in greater amounts were α-pinene, β-pinene, 1,8-cineole, camphor, borneol, δ-elemene, α-cubebene, α-ylangene, (E)-caryophyllene, germacrene D, bicyclogermacrene, trans-calamenene, spathulenol, caryophyllene oxide, and viridiflorol. These compounds defined the formation of two groups. The first group was composed of the populations of São Cristóvão, Itaporanga, Japaratuba, and Malhada dos Bois municipalities and was characterized by the presence of the monoterpene camphor (8.39-11.27%) as the compound of greatest concentration in relation to the other municipal areas. The second group was composed of the populations of Moita Bonita and Pirambu municipalities and was characterized by the major presence of the sesquiterpene bicyclogermacrene (7.45% and 10.98%). The plants exhibited weak effects in terms of antioxidant activity; however, the essential oil showed significant toxicity for the lines A549 (51.00% cell viability) in the population of Japaratuba, and B16F10 (64.94% cell viability) in Malhada dos Bois. The observations of this study may open a way to optimize the use of the E. fruticosa populations in relation to their cytotoxic properties.
Highlights
Plants have been an important source of treatments for illnesses for thousands of years
2.2 Extraction and identification of the chemical composition of the essential oils The leaves collected were taken to the Department of Agronomic Engineering of the Federal University of Sergipe, where the material was dried in a forced air circulation laboratory oven at 40°C for five days
The small variation observed in the composition of the essential oils among the E. fruticosa populations can be partially attributed to the low phenotypic plasticity of the plants to adapt to different environmental conditions
Summary
Plants have been an important source of treatments for illnesses for thousands of years. Awareness of traditional knowledge and of medicinal plants can play a fundamental role in the investigation and discovery of the natural resources of plants This empirical knowledge helps the pharmaceutical industry to develop new medications that will be used in the treatment of various diseases (Sivakumar and Balasubramanian, 2020; Jamshidi-Kia et al, 2018). With around 250 genera and more than 7,000 species distributed throughout the world, is among the largest plant families. This family is considered an important source of essential oils with analgesic, antioxidant, and anticancer properties (Mesquita et al, 2019; Uritu et al, 2018; Nieto, 2017). The genus Hyptis, the representative of the family with the largest number of species in Brazil, underwent taxonomic modifications after a recent review of the subtribe Hyptidinae, when a considerable part of its species were redistributed in eleven genera, including the genus Eplingiella (Harley and Pastore, 2012)
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