Estudos químicos de aproveitamento do cauxí, esponja-de-água-doce da Amazônia

Abstract

Sponges have enormous biotechnological potential in natural products research due to several biological activities exhibited by their extracts and isolated compounds. Although the majority of studies reported are with marine sponges, there are indications of great variability of secondary metabolites are also present in freshwater sponges. The absence of chemical studies of these organisms in Amazonia motivated the present work, with a broad survey of the species and organic and inorganic chemiscal studies. Several expeditions in Amazon region allowed the collection of sponges in different rivers. Taxonomic identification was performed by means of optical microscopy techniques, which allowed the observation of the remarkable abundance of family Metaniidae specimens of the genus Metania and Drulia, with the genus Acalle also found. The other two families reported in the Neotropics were also found: Spongillidae with genus Trochospongilla and Corvospongilla, and Potamolepidae, with the genus Oncosclera. The elemental composition of the sponges was determined by Xray fluorescence, allowing the identification of some characteristics for groups of sponges. We can stand out the absent from aluminum in Metania genus and presence in all other species studied. Ca, K and Ti were not detected only in the M. fittkaui species. The species Trochospongilla paulula showed ability to accumulate vanadium. Two methodologies were evaluated for the purification of silica present in these organisms, the first involving the solubilization and selective precipitation, and the second employing highly oxidizing solutions, followed by calcination. The purification of silica afforded the product with purity near of silica commercially available for support to liquid chromatography. Steroidal fractions obtained from apolar sponges extracts were derivatized and analyzed by gas chromatography and the majority sterols were identified. The sterol 24-ethyl-cholest-5,22-dien-3β-ol proved to be majoritary in the samples of the families Metaniidae and Potamolepidae, different from Spongillidae in which cholesterol is found in highest concentration. There were identified three other sterol 24-methyl-cholesta-5,22-dien-3β-ol, 24-methyl-cholest-5-en-3β-ol and 24- ethyl-cholest-5-en-3β-ol and three ketosteroids cholest-4-ene-3-one, 24-methyl-cholest-4,22- dien-3-one and 24-ethyl-cholest-4,22-dien-3-one so far unpublished in freshwater sponge..