Desenvolvimento de extrato seco padronizado de frutos sem sementes de Caesalpinia ferrea C. Mart. e avaliação da atividade anti-inflamatória

Abstract

Caesalpinia ferrea C. Mart (Fabaceae), known in Amazonian region as jucá is widely used in the folk medicine in inflammation and to treat wounds and anemia. However, there are no studies on the quality control of the C. ferrea raw material, lacking the standardization of the chemical and extractive procedures, identifying the substances responsible for the pharmacological effects. In this work, after the raw material characterization, two standardized extracts were produced and their analgesic/anti-inflammatory activities were compared. The aqueous extracts were obtained by decoction of the fruits without seeds at 2,5%. After filtration and concentration, the extracts were dried by aspersion or freeze-dryer, generating the ADE - aspersion dried extract, and the FDE freeze-dried extract. ADE and FDE were standardized by the humidity ratio and total tannins and polyphenols concentrations. The humidity ratio (14% and 11%), total tannins (13% and 11%) and polyphenols (49% and 43%) were not different between ADE and FDE, respectively. In the general pharmacological test, the standardized extracts (0,1; 0,3 e 1,0 g/kg, p.o.), did not cause ataxia, motor incoordination, irritability or hiper-reactivity to nociceptive stimulation. Death was not observed, showing that the extracts did not produce potential toxic effects. At the major doses, the extracts increased the ethyl ether and the pentobarbital induced-sleeping time, indicating the depression of the central nervous system without affecting the motor activity, as confirmed in the rota-rod test. In the formalin test, the extracts reduced the lickingtime in the 1st and in the 2nd phase; this effect was blocked by the previous (15 min) administration of naloxone (5 mg/kg, i.p.). In the acetic acid-induced abdominal contortions test, the extracts (0,1; 0,3 e 1,0 g/kg, p.o.) diminished the number of contortions until 30 min after acetic acid administration. The extracts neither change the basal latency of the thermal stimulation reaction (55 ºC) in the tail-flick test nor inhibited the carrageenan-induced acute paw edema; the positive control indomethacin inhibited the edema in 60% after 2 h. In the dextran-induced acute paw edema test, the treatment with ADE or FDE reduced the edema in 30%, without dose-effect relationship; the positive control cyproheptadine (10 mg/kg, p.o.) reduced the edema in 81% in the same time. With these results, we concluded that the pharmacological effects were not different between the two standardized extracts - ADE and FDE from Caesalpinia ferrea C. Mart. The anti-nociceptive effect in the extracts containing ~46% polyphenols and ~12% tannins involves common pathways to the opioids. ADE and FDE inhibited the dextran-induced acute paw edema, but did not inhibit the carrageenaninduced acute paw edema.