Abstract
Abstract Hymenaea martiana is a native medicinal plant from the Caatinga, but biochemical studies of the fruit have not yet been reported. Thus, this study aimed to determine sugars and secondary metabolites, as well as assess the sunscreen potential of H. martiana fruits. The fruits were collected in Petrolina and separated into pulp and seeds. The sugar analysis investigated the presence of glucose, xylose, cellobiose, arabinose and xylitol. The determination of secondary metabolites was made through phytochemical screening and sunscreen activity was assessed with the spectrophotometric method. In the fruit pulp, carbohydrates with a great biotechnological potential were identified. The substances found in the phytochemical screening showed great antioxidant, photoprotective and medicinal potential. With the pulp extract, the sun protection factor values obtained were not significant and for the extract from the seeds, the values were 4.54 ± 0.11. Although the values found are below the recommended, the fruit extracts of H. martiana could be used in future development of sunscreen products providing several benefits to the formulation.
Highlights
Hymenaea is a genus of the Fabaceae family, highly distributed from Central America to South America, mainly in the Amazon basin, with about 25 species described in the Americas
A polysaccharide has been studied in Hymenaea, xyloglucan, which has been extracted from cotyledons (Buckeridge et al, 1997), seeds (Lima et al, 1993) and leaves (Busato et al, 2001)
As one of the main hemicellulosic polysaccharides, xyloglucan is present in primary cell walls of dicotyledonous plants (Mcneil et al, 1984; Fry, 1989; Carpita & Gibeaut, 1993), but it was found in the gymnosperm (Kakegawa et al, 1998)
Summary
Hymenaea is a genus of the Fabaceae family, highly distributed from Central America to South America, mainly in the Amazon basin, with about 25 species described in the Americas Plants of the this genus are known in Brazil as “jatobá”, “jetaí”, “jataí‐uva”, “jetaíba” and are largely distributed in Brazil, especially in the Brazilian biome called “cerrado” (savanna-like vegetation) (Minas Gerais, Bahia, Goias, and Tocantins) and the Amazon forest (Boniface et al, 2017). One species of this genus can be found in Brazilian Caatinga, Hymenaea martiana, with a great phytochemical and medicinal potential (Oliveira et al, 2016; Oliveira et al, 2018). Shanley & Medina (2005) characterize this plant as a large tree, 15-20 m high, with dense foliage and thick bark, straight trunk, about 2 m in diameter
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