Abstract
Myracrodruon urundeuva Fr. Allem. (Anacardiaceae) is a tree popularly known as the “aroeira-do-sertão”, native to the caatinga and cerrado biomes, with a natural dispersion ranging from the Northeast, Midwest, to Southeast Brazil. Its wood is highly valued and overexploited, due to its characteristics such as durability and resistance to decaying. The diversity of chemical constituents in aroeira seed has shown biological properties against microorganisms and helminths. As such, this work aimed to identify the profile of volatile compounds present in aroeira seeds. Headspace solid phase microextraction was employed (HS-SPME) using semi-polar polydimethylsiloxane-divinylbenzene fiber (PDMS/DVB) for the extraction of VOCs. 22 volatile organic compounds were identified: nine monoterpenes and eight sesquiterpenes, in addition to six compounds belonging to different chemical classes such as fatty acids, terpenoids, salicylates and others. Those that stood out were p-mentha-1,4, 4(8)-diene, 3-carene (found in all samples), caryophyllene and cis-geranylacetone. A virtual docking analysis suggested that around 65% of the VOCs molar content from the aroeiras seeds present moderate a strong ability to bind to cyclooxygenase I (COX-I) active site, oxide nitric synthase (iNOS) active site (iNOSas) or to iNOS cofactor site (iNOScs), corroborating an anti-inflamatory potential. A pharmacophoric descriptor analysis allowed to infer the more determinant characteristics of these compounds’ conferring affinity to each site. Taken together, our results illustrate the high applicability for the integrated use of SPME, in silico virtual screening and chemoinformatics tools at the profiling of the biotechnological and pharmaceutical potential of natural sources.
Highlights
Aroeira (Myracrodruon urundeuva), commonly known in Brazil as “aroeira do sertão” is a dioecious species
Its fruits have an oval shape, and a firm calyx, considered fruitseed [1,2]. This species comes from cerrado and semiarid regions [3] and can be found in Brazil from the Northeast to the South of the country, presenting significant economic value [4–6]
Mature seeds of Myracrodruon urundeuva from 5 adult matrices were collected in October and November 2019 in different areas of Sete Lagoas-MG, Brazil, located at coordinates 19◦28 29.0 S 44◦11 39.9 W, at an altitude of 751 m
Summary
Aroeira (Myracrodruon urundeuva), commonly known in Brazil as “aroeira do sertão” is a dioecious species. Its fruits have an oval shape, and a firm calyx, considered fruitseed [1,2]. This species comes from cerrado and semiarid regions [3] and can be found in Brazil from the Northeast to the South of the country, presenting significant economic value [4–6]. Aroeira has been widely studied due to its therapeutic properties, with emphasis on anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial and healing activities. A set of recent studies have pointed to the medicinal properties of the whole plant, the extracts and essential oils from the seeds [8–10]. The complex mixture of aroeira seed organic compounds has shown anthelmintic and antimicrobial activity [11]
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