Estudo farmacognóstico e de atividade farmacológica da espécie Byrsonima japurensis A. JUSS. (MALPIGHIACEAE)

Abstract

The Byrsonima genus (Malpighiaceae) is widely used as a medicine in Brazil. The tea made of the stem bark of B. japurensis A. Juss., popularly know as ―sara-tudo‖, is indiscriminately used against many inflammatory disorders in Amazonas State, in spite of the fact that there is no scientific data to support this usage. Thus, in this work we performed a pharmacognostic characterization of the stem bark of this specie and a pharmacological study with an aqueous extract obtained from it. In the pharmacognostic study we applied pharmacopeic and no pharmacopeic methods to determinate quality parameters of the herbal drug. In the pharmacological study we evaluated its antioxidant, antiplatelet and antiedematogenic capacity, in order to investigate its anti-inflammatory potential and possible mechanisms. To evaluate the safety of usage of an aqueous extract with therapeutic purposes we also carried out an acute toxicity study. The pharmacognostic study of the stem bark of B. japurensis showed that this herbal drug has a variety of substances with pharmacological potential. This fact was observed in the pharmacological study, where the substances of extract acted by different mechanisms culminating in an appreciable anti-inflammatory activity. However, the same composition variety was responsible for the high toxicity presented by the extract. Nevertheless, the species proved to be promising as a source of prototypes for new medicines. However, the species proved to be promising, after further study of the dose-effect in vivo, for use in therapy, or even as a source of new prototypes of drugs